Force of Chaos
by Laryna6
Summary: The hyperresonance that sent Luke to Tataroo materialized him in his true form: a seven-year-old child. Can Tear return him to his family without strangling him? Will they be able to see him for who he truly is? Reposting edited ending.
1. Just a kid

_Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss. You can tell by the Miyazaki-style ending._

_Aaaand yet another random AU. The premise for this one is that, after doing a little more thinking about the capabilities and nature of the seventh fonon, in particular the entire time/memory combination and then taking a look at how teleportation by hyperresonance would work. Resonance is when a frequency makes matter vibrate at a frequency where the vibration is natural to it and gets stronger, and stronger… It can make a suspension bridge buckle and twist in waves like it's the surface of the freaking ocean. I'm not kidding, go look it up. I saw a video of people going across it while it was like that, and the waves kept getting more and more violent until it finally broke. And I'm talking a real bridge, with asphalt and so on. In the US. Made for cars. And all it took for that to happen was the freaking wind. _

_On the most basic level, hyperresonance disassembles & reassembles matter in another form. The best example of that is Eldrant itself. Given that the seventh fonon is the fonon of time and as we all know time is just another dimension of space, disassembling Tear and Luke and one place and then reassembling them in another is easy peasy. However, what would it use as a template? Seventh fonons contain memory of past, present, and future. So how did it know to have Tear be 16 and Luke 17? _

_Clones will be the age of the DNA's source, because DNA ages as cells divide. The cells used to make children divide once per generation, and thus we don't look 60 when we're 16. If the hyperresonance had used the 'we are here in time' marker on Luke's body shape memory fonons, which via replica data extraction are the same as Asch's, then he would indeed come out 17. However, personal memories are clearly not stored in the same fonons, otherwise Luke would have Asch's memories. According to the 'we are here in time' marker on his memories, Luke is seven. Imagine if he'd come out of that hyperresonance with the memories he would possess as a seventeen year old._

…_which makes for an entire different breed of plotrappig. _

_In any case, the premise of this fic is that the hyperresonance used the 'we are here in time' marker on Luke's personal memory fonons only. Meaning that the shape he would be reassembled in would be the shape his body fonons say he should be at the time Luke is as old as he personally is._

_Seven. _

_Armed with an excuse to turn Luke chibi, I turned him loose, made popcorn, and watched the fireworks._

-

"Hey, wake up." He was shaken gently by the woman with the gentle voice.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawned. "Where's Guy?" Normally the maids would only knock on the door, Guy was the only one who would come into his room.

"Probably back in Baticul."

"Huh?" Luke opened his eyes to see the assassin lady looming over him threateningly. "Gah!" He scrambled back holding up a sword that suddenly seemed heavy and awkward. And when had the assassin gotten so big? "Stay back!"

"It's okay, little boy, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Who are you calling little boy!"

"I'm sorry. Uh, little man?"

"I'm not a little anything! I'll have reached my majority in three years, you know!" He hated being called young master by Ramdas and the servants.

"Are you sure? You can't be more than eight." She frowned.

"I'm not eight! I'm seventeen!" Wait a minute… "I'm short!" He had never seen anyone who was this small, but he'd gotten taller as he got older, Guy and Master Van told him, so… "I'm eight?" That meant he wouldn't be twenty for another twelve years! They'd never let him out of the manor! "I can't be eight! I want to be twenty already so I can get out of… I'm outside the manor?" There were flowers and a whole lot of water in the distance and…

"You're not supposed to look this way?" Now that Tear thought about it, he had seemed taller and older when they crossed weapons, but hyperresonance could have tricky effects on memory, according to Major Legretta. Since it could reshape matter and the seventh fonon affected time and memory, turning someone into a younger version of themselves wasn't impossible.

"No, of course I'm not! I'm Luke fon Fabre, and I'm seventeen! Who are you?" The cute wide-eyed amazement at where he was vanished and was replaced by a bratty pout that was somehow also cute, since it was clear he was scared underneath it and those hard lips were trying not to wibble.

"I'm Tear Grants," she began.

"Master Van's sister? Then why would you attack Master Van? I don't believe you."

"Well, regardless of whether you believe me or not, someone who looks like an eight year old, even if they aren't one, won't be able to get home to Baticul on their own. I owe you for dragging you into this, and what's happened to you, so I'll get you home, don't worry."

"Hey! Don't ruffle my hair like that!" His head squirmed to get out from under her hand.

"I'm sorry."

"You'd better be."

-

Tear closed her eyes and ducked her head, whispering, "Sorry," to the little boy who was going to be eaten by the monster after it finished her. She couldn't handle them by herself, and now he was never going to get home and it was all her fault…

She heard a grunt of effort and the sound of tusk hitting hardwood. "Get up, idiot!"

Tear opened her eyes again to see Luke grunting with the effort of holding back something several times his weight, feet braced and body at an angle. "Right!" She sprang to her feet and, worriedly took out the last apple gel.

"Don't be stupid, do your healing thing! I can hold him!"

"Are you sure?"

"Hurry up and cast! I'm not Master Van's student for nothing!" The monster backed off for another charge, and even with a body nine years younger than he was used to with none of the height, a different center of balance, less muscle… Sheer bloody-minded determination let Luke keep it away from her, although Tear winced every time he wasn't able to dodge fast enough and a tusk managed to hit him.

Once the arte finished she ordered Luke, "Get away from it!"

"No! I may be a little kid because of you and your stupid hyperresonance, but I'm not useless! You need to be able to hold still to do those fonic things, and without them you suck! If I want to get home I'm going to have to keep you alive, and that's that! And evil assassin or not you're Master Van's sister."

Children around this age could begin Oracle Knight training, but… "It looks like we don't have any other choice."

After the battle Luke stood there and panted. "Man, are all eight year olds this weak?"

"Actually, you're pretty strong for an eight year old noble. Don't you remember what it was like at that age?" She was sixteen, and she remembered it.

"No. I don't. I was kidnapped when I was ten and I don't remember anything from before then. And since then I've been kept in the manor so something like this wouldn't happen again. So shut up about me not knowing stuff like about the ocean and fonic artes and borders. I had to spend three years learning how to walk and talk and read and write again and it gets really old, everyone expecting me to catch up with those stupid people with ten more years to learn stuff in than me overnight." That destroyed any camraderie they had, Luke walking ahead despite her orders to stay behind her because of monsters.

He wasn't only suddenly eight and nearly helpless but he didn't have any idea what it was like to be a normal eight-year-old. "I'm sorry," she apologized to him, catching up.

"You should be." He was still clearly mad at her. "I hate it when people do that, and they do it all the time. Don't talk to me unless we get in another fight. And don't call me stupid for not knowing things when I can't help it! I've got lot of things to learn and how am I supposed to know what a river looks like if they never let me outside…" He started walking faster again to get away from her, so she slowed down again so that they wouldn't tire themselves out.

They managed to find a coachman, but, "Sorry, kid. I need payment in advance, that's how the coaches work."

"Really? You can't wait until we get to the capital and my dad can pay you?"

"No, that's not how most things work, actually. Parents might just give you stuff, but if you're running a business you need people to give you the money in advance. Your parents might know where you live, so if you skip out on chores you'll get in trouble for it, but I don't have the time to bother with that sort of thing."

"Will you take this?" Tear asked him, and her mother's pendant was accepted. She hated giving it up, but she had to get this almost-child home. This was all her fault.

And _they were in Malkuth_. She had taken the son of Duke Fabre, one of Malkuth's enemies, into the territory of the people who had kidnapped him and caused him to lose his memories. And turned him into a nearly-helpless eight year old, couldn't forget that.

Letting him run around the market at Engave entranced by the idea of buying things was the least she could do under the circumstances, even though she found out afterwards that he'd replaced all his equipment (which was a very good idea: his house garb had sold for a lot and he was young, he did need the best stuff he could get to stand a chance) and hadn't bought a thing for her. At least he'd gotten a few healing items, and he was willing to share the strawberries with her after she asked a few times, although the apples were _his_.

"They grow food in Engave," she told him. "The apples are from here and have to go a long way to Baticul, so it makes sense that they're fresher and taste better here."

"Mmm." He munched on another as he carried the ingredients she'd asked him to fetch back to the cooking woman. "I know, they told me." Tear'd been very surprised when he told her he'd agreed to help out. He was very sullen when it came to anything she asked him to do, but then she had kidnapped him and tried to kill his teacher in front of him, so he didn't have any reason to like her.

"You like Van a lot, don't you?"

"Of course I do. He's the only one who actually teaches me instead of just trying to get me to remember stuff I can't remember. He tells me what I'm doing wrong instead of just expecting me to know already and giving me one of those stupid looks I get when I ask people what the problem is instead of an actual answer. How am I supposed to stop doing things wrong if people never tell me anything!" Aargh! "Of course, if you need a little kid to save you then Master Van will be able to beat you with one hand tied behind his back, so I don't need to worry. Now go to the stupid inn and stop following me!"

Remembering how he was treated seemed to have ruined the good mood learning about bargaining and buying things from the coachman and the shopkeepers had put him in.

"Hey, you!" After Tear left Luke she was accosted by an angry man, then others. "This is the woman that came into town today!"

"You're coming with us!"

"What is this about?" Tear protested.

"Someone stole everything from our storehouse."

"Wait, wasn't she with that kid?" And therefore a decent person by association.

"He said that she was a crook, and they're only traveling together because he's making her take him back home after she kidnapped him by accident."

"What?!" At first Tear was outraged Luke had said that, but then she realized that invading fon Fabre manor, putting the guards to sleep, trying to kill his teacher and kidnapping him qualified as a crook.

"Where is Luke, anyway?"

"Don't tell me she!"

"I didn't do anything to him! He said that he was taking some woman some ingredients she asked for!"

Luke was very annoyed to be dragged away from helping this woman make pasta (apparently he'd never been allowed into the kitchens unless he snuck in, and this gave cooking the allure of the forbidden instead of the dreariness of a chore), to defend Tear. "Well, she is a crook, so I don't know. She might have."

"Luke!"

"How did you meet her?"

"She broke into my parent's house and attacked her brother, who is my teacher."

"Luke!" There was an officer of the Malkuth military present, and was Luke stupid? He might give away his identity and end up in Malkuth's hands. Only _he didn't know any better_ and there was no way she could clue him in with so many listeners present.

"What?"

"That was… that was grown-up stuff! I'm not a crook, I'm a member of the Oracle Knights! I swear I didn't have anything to do with the theft, and I'm just trying to return Luke to his family."

"Grown-up stuff?! Why you!" If the officer hadn't flung out an arm and grabbed him easily Luke might have lunged at her. "Let me go!"

"Now now…" The door opened. "Fon Master Ion?"

"I found cheagle fur in the storehouse. I think they're the culprits."

"It could be a ruse," the officer pointed out. "The only way to prove it would be to recover our supplies from Cheagle Woods. They can't have eaten all of it, cheagles are herbivores."

"I agree. If the sacred cheagles are responsible, then this is an Order of Lorelei matter."

"Fon Master Ion? Wait, weren't you kidnapped? What are you doing here?"

"Kidnapped?" Everyone looked at Luke.

"My teacher said he wouldn't be able to train me anymore because Fon Master Ion had been kidnapped and he was going to have to go look for him." That clearly sucked, and it was Ion's fault for getting kidnapped.

"I wasn't kidnapped, I came to Malkuth on my own. Who is your teacher?"

"Master Van. You know him, right?"

"God-general Van Grants?" The officer's attention was now focused on the boy he hadn't yet released. "And what might your name be?"

Luke looked away. "Luke." Why wasn't he declaring himself to be Luke fon Fabre? Oh, he was probably worried about his outward age, that they wouldn't believe him. Thank goodness!

"Luke what?" Rose the headwoman asked kindly.

"None of your business."

"Oh, I think it is _my_ business when it's involved in a theft investigation. Also, Ion's presence here is important to the peace effort. If someone is going around spreading rumors he was kidnapped by Malkuth we need to know who, who has heard them, and why."

"You really weren't kidnapped?" Luke asked Ion.

"No." He shook his head.

"Oh. Maybe Master Van heard you had gone to Malkuth and thought you'd been kidnapped. I mean, Malkuth kidnaps people all the time."

"What?" Everyone stared at him.

"Well, I mean, I was kidnapped by Malkuth, and then I was kidnapped _to_ Malkuth by her. I guess I don't know anyone else, though." Luke sighed, folding his arms. "Not that anyone tells me anything…"

"You were kidnapped by Malkuth?"

"Yeah, when…" When he was ten. Only he looked eight. Which, Tear realized, was about how long it had been since he was kidnapped. Maybe the hyperresonance had put him in that form because it was how old he should be from the memories he had. "I don't remember it, it was seven years ago."

"Where are you from? Not Malkuth, obviously."

"Baticul."

"How did you end up here?"

"Luke!" Tear tried to keep him from answering the officer's questions.

"Everything started being all glowy, she said it was a hyperresonance afterwards, when I tried to keep her from attacking Master Van. We ended up someplace called Tataroo Valley, and she tried to get me on a coach home, only she was an idiot and forgot to find out _what _capital the coach was going to. And then the bridge got blown up so we couldn't go back and try to find a coach going the right way. You know, Tear's really stupid. I don't think she could have managed to pull off stealing everything in a store."

Tear groaned, hanging her head.

"So you two were the cause of the hyperresonance we detected. I would arrest you both for illegal border crossing, but as it seems it was just an accident and we're headed to Baticul in any case I suppose I could bring the two of you along, especially as it was my ship that failed to prevent the Dark Wings from blowing up the bridge."

"Really? Thanks!" Luke grinned. "She's pretty weak, and I had to keep saving her from monsters, and it was really annoying."

He seemed a lot more like a seven year old than a seventeen year old. Perhaps the transformation had affected his brain?

"Why don't we all rest up in the inn before heading to Cheagle Woods tomorrow? I'm afraid you will have to remain in my custody until this matter is cleared up."

"Sure… Uh, who are you?"

"Colonel Jade Curtiss, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces."

"Sure, Jade."

By the time they were at the inn Luke had become friends with the kindly Ion and his Fon Master Guardian Anise, who shared Luke's immaturity. The topic had somehow become Tear's alleged shoplifting exploits, and Anise seemed to be scarily knowledgeable in the field.

Tear trailed along behind with Colonel Curtiss feeling extremely embarrassed.

"Care to tell me why according to my magic lenses an eight year old is equally leveled with a sixteen year old full-fledged Oracle Knight?"

And just when she thought she couldn't get any more embarrassed. "Well, he is my brother's student. And I only just completed my training."

"What did he mean by saying Malkuth kidnapped him?"

"I'm really not clear on all the details. My brother hasn't been telling me much for years." Tear looked away. "Yes, I didn't do my research and I'm way too underleveled to even think about taking Van on by myself. Don't rub it in."

"Rub it in? Oh, you mean the comment about the lenses? No no no, I was simply impressed with Luke's progress. He's very advanced for someone of that age. A credit to your brother." Unlike someone else present, but he didn't say it outright, so she couldn't get away with pointing it out without underlining the fact that… Aargh! This guy!

At least they roomed away from him, even though Luke had wanted to spend the night with Ion and his new friend Anise instead of with Tear 'the crook.' "Luke, what were you thinking?"

"About what?"

"Malkuth and Kimlasca are enemies! There's about to be a war, don't you get it! And…" From his glare, she knew that no, he hadn't known. "I'm sorry. Look, it's turned out okay but whatever you do don't let them find out who your father is. He's one of Malkuth's enemies."

"I'm not going to tell them. They won't believe me anyway." He rolled over, looking away from her. "Now be quiet and let me go to sleep. I've had a long day."

There seemed to be something more to that. "Luke, are you okay?"

"You made me a decade younger and they might not even recognize me or believe me when I go home, if I ever do get home. Do you _think_ I'm okay? Stupid Tear."

"I'm sorry."

"You should be."


	2. Liger cub

_In which we are reminded that Jade likes bratty kids that are actually kids (for example, Anise) trying to be older than they are and providing free entertainment._

_Also, similarities with Arietta crop up._

_Sometimes the Liger Queen adopts random cubs. More often they get eaten, of course..._

-

Ordered to stay back while Jade, Anise and Tear fought the Liger Queen, Luke ended up rescuing Ion and Mieu and getting involved in the fight anyway. This ended with Luke acquiring an indentured servant/pet in the form of the cutest thing Tear had ever seen. And no, stupid Tear was not allowed to touch his thing. Anise snickering when Luke said that didn't help, especially when she let him in on the joke and everyone laughed at the madly blushing Tear and Luke.

The monster in the Cheagle Woods and Rugnica Plains were weak, so Luke was allowed to train his heart out along with Anise on the way there and back to report to Rose, while Jade's minions, he meant soldiers, loaded up the stolen food and returned it to Engave. Ion, and to a degree Anise, had insisted on it to help him get over having to let the Liger eggs get broken.

"We don't want him turning into another Glomietta," Anise had muttered under her breath before going back over to Luke and Ion after getting permission to walk back. "Come on, Luke, killing monsters for gald is fun!"

"I'm sure General Grants will be proud of you for helping save Engave," Ion told him.

Luke perked up instantly. "Yeah! And for saving his sister all those times! No wonder he trains me instead of her!"

"That… Brat…" Depriving her of cuteness, insulting her constantly… Luke. Would. Pay.

"He is a little monster isn't he?" Jade agreed, although there seemed to be some inkling that far from being sympathetic he thought Luke was a monster after his own heart. "No wonder he and Anise are getting along so well."

-

Luke's extra training came in handy when the Tartarus was attacked and Jade was sealed. Luke was left to stand guard while Tear and Jade went into the bridge. Somehow, the unconscious soldier whose life Luke had pleaded for woke up (Luke blamed this on the Thing, and didn't talk to it for days, meaning Tear was allowed to comfort Mieu to her heart's content) and attacked Luke.

They ran out to find Luke crouched there. "I killed him… I killed him…" Shoulders shaking with the desire to sob.

"What the hell is a little kid doing on a battlefield?!" After an icicle rain forced Tear and Jade to dodge someone that had to be a god-general appeared. "Go home to your mommy!"

"But…" Luke started crying now. "She won't recognize me! I've always been weak and stupid and acted like such a little kid because I can't remember anything and now I look that way too and they won't want me back!" He curled up tighter around his sobs. "They don't want me anyway, I'm just a burden and a coward who's too scared to remember and…"

"Look, just shut up already! You're not the only one whose parents don't give a damn about them! It's not the end of the world, so get over it already!"

Luke kept crying. Apparently this god-general's training had not included anything on how to deal with children. He looked utterly lost.

"Captain, what should we do with the prisoners?" an Oracle Knight asked.

"And now I've gotten captured again," sob, "and they'll never let me outside ever again even when I do turn twenty and I'll be stuck there forever and ever and what if they blame Master Van for his stupid sister kidnapping me and I never get to see him again…" The last half was almost impossible to make out around the sobs. "I don't want to go home!" Luke yelled. "You can't make me!"

"Luke!" Tear wanted to grab him but was restrained by an Oracle Knight.

Luke's wild dash for freedom was intercepted by the god-general, who caught him by the scruff of his coat easily and held on as Luke struggled and wailed at him with fists, feet, and he would have tried with his teeth two if the Captain hadn't held him back easily, a child's strength no match for a god-generals. Teeth bared and growling, hair sticking to a tear-streaked face, Luke really did look like a little monster. "Let me go!"

"What did she call you?" There seemed to be a heaviness, a potential threat to those words, and Tear remembered that red hair usually meant someone related to the Kimlascan royal family. Even if Luke's existence was rarely mentioned someone related to him would know, and might have a reason to detest the current most likely candidate for kingship, especially as he was the son of the Duke of Belkend, a semi-outsider.

"It doesn't matter! I can't… I can't… I can't remember, don't you understand that I've been trying?! It's not my fault, it's those stupid people that kidnapped me but everyone expects me to just snap out of it and I can't! And Guy's always having to go to so much trouble for me and Natalia's always so sad because I don't remember all the stuff I did with her and they'd be better off without me! I wish they'd just killed me! Let me go!"

"Asch, what are you doing?"

"Major Legretta?" What was Tear's teacher doing here?

Asch brushed Luke's hair away from his face. "You…"

"Put that child and the rest of the prisoners in the cells and hurry up, we have a mission to accomplish!"

Ignoring her, Asch regarded Luke as Luke both sniffled and glared, about as threatening as a wet kitten. "I don't care what you do, I'm not going back! They won't take me back anyway, and I'm glad!"

"In a moment, Legretta. Are you?" Of course he wasn't, that element was easy to pick up. Yet there was still that same sense of threat, a liger that hadn't yet decided whether or not to unsheathe its claws as it circled helpless prey.

Luke looked away, silent for a moment. "…They don't want me. I'm sick of trying to be what they want. I want… I want them to love me, but no matter what I do… So if they won't let me go back home… Then I'll know they'll never love me, but at least I can stop trying. It hurts, it hurts when I try and…No matter what I do it's not good enough!" Why, why wasn't it good enough? Why wasn't he good enough for them: his eyes begged Asch for an answer. "They say I'm just not trying, but I am trying! I'm trying my hardest, and even my best isn't good enough that it even counts as effort!"

It seemed the helpless prey had been recognized as a liger cub, the way Arietta had been adopted by one. Tear started breathing again when Asch lowered Luke to his feet, although he still kept a firm grip on his jacket. "Oh." Legretta seemed to be enlightened. "Tear, I don't know what you're doing here, but you have been fighting our troops and we're on a mission. I'll find out later but for now you all will be placed in the cells."

"I understand, Major Legretta."

"I'll take them down," Asch informed her.

"Who is he? Someone's recognized child?" That was the polite term for someone known to be a bastard: a child who had been sired outside of marriage but recognized by their (usually) noble parent as their child. They were often taken into noble households as somewhat-servants, often trained to defend the rest of the family and their status, food, and clothing were dependant on a strange combination of familial affection and how useful they were. They were often detested by the rest of the family, especially if they had been sired before the lord's marriage and hence were older than the rightful heir to the property.

"Yes," Asch told Legretta after a moment, smiling strangely. "He's certainly illegitimate."

Legretta didn't notice anything strange, but perhaps Tear and Jade were paying more attention since they didn't think they knew what was going on. "Well, if you fight that well at your age, child, there's a place for you in the Oracle Knights."

"…Really?" Luke asked her, a note of surprised hope in his voice. "You think I'm good?"

"You killed one of my men, didn't you? There aren't many seven year olds that can do that." Legretta gave basic training: she was a good judge of ages.

"I'm sorry."

"He was trying to kill you. There is no 'sorry' in that situation." Legretta departed.

"Take them away." Asch gestured to Jade and Tear. "I'll handle this one personally."

"At once, Captain!"

"Come with me," he ordered Luke, releasing his jacket.

Luke glanced at Tear and Jade, then asked Asch, "Will they be okay?"

"They're prisoners. No one's going to touch them. Provided they don't do anything stupid."

Luke looked really worried. "Tear's not all that bright, and Jade's going to try to escape. He always has a plan for everything. I kind of… Tear is my teacher's sister, so…" That meant he had a duty to protect her, because teachers and students were sort of family.

"If my men can't handle a fon slot sealed soldier, even the Necromancer, and a novice seventh fonist without killing them then Legretta will have their heads, the same way she would if her student Tear were killed."

Phew. Luke let Asch put a hand on his shoulder and lead him away.

-

"What am I going to do with you?" Asch wondered as soon as the door of the room he'd chosen to talk in closed behind them. It appeared that he would be guarding the ship instead of Arietta, once she returned with Ion.

"Please don't let them make me go home. You understand, right? You said that your parents didn't care about you either." Luke looked up at him with hope. "You're a god-general?"

"Yes. God-general Asch the Bloody, head of Special Operations."

"Wow." Honest admiration there, almost hero worship. "Do you think I could?"

The answer was obviously no, but he found himself not wanting to say it. "You're quite good, for only seven."

"I'm not really seven." Except that he was. "I'm seventeen. I was kidnapped by Malkuth when I was ten and when they found me I didn't know anything, not even how to walk or talk. They all… they all want me to be the person I once was, but no matter how hard I try to remember nothing comes back. I should have mastered Ancient Ispanian and I still make some spelling mistakes with the fonic language… I guess I am just like a seven year old, huh. Maybe that's why the hyperresonance turned me into one." Small comfort, when, "It's my fault I don't remember. I was traumatized and I'm a coward who is refusing to face those memories. So maybe it's just more running away to want to give up on being Luke fon Fabre."

"That sounds… difficult."

"It's harder on everyone else than it is on me. Natalia's always so hurt when I don't remember things we did, and Guy has to go too so much trouble, and I'm always embarrassing Father in front of guests, and Mother's so worried by what could have happened to me that was horrible enough to make me forget. I'm just a burden on everyone.

"It would have been better if I'd never been found," Luke added, and Asch didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't considered… they might have mistaken the replica for him, but that didn't mean the replica was him. How much worse was it to be surrounded, day after day, by people who didn't recognize you but looked at you and saw someone else than to know that people had looked at someone else and thought they were you and been able to say goodbye to them?

The pain he'd through was buried rose at recognizing the same pain in his replica. They really were the same, even if Luke didn't look all that much like him at the moment. Well, not as he was now. When he'd run away from Daath, perhaps, trying to escape Van and go home, in the same way that the replica was trying to escape the manor… but didn't have a home.

"What did you do?"

"When I found out they didn't care about me? Joined the Oracle Knights."

"I would really want to do that, but even if no one else would recognize me Master Van would. He's the only one who could understand that I was trying. He encouraged me and scolded me. If he found me he would tell me they would love me no matter what because they're my family like he always does and I would go home because I wouldn't want to let him down. But they're not like Master Van. He doesn't care that I don't remember. They… want their Luke back, not me. So… I couldn't ever see him again. Or Guy. But… I think that's better than just hurting people every day. Mother, though. She'll worry, and worry, and she'll get sick from worrying so much." Luke looked down at his feet. "I don't want to go back." But it might be his duty to. "They did so much work to make me quit acting like an infant, and…"

"And?" Asch asked him sternly.

"I owe them. I should go back."

"You don't owe them anything."

Luke stared at him. What?

"Thanks and gratitude are things that have to be earned. It doesn't matter how much someone thinks you should owe them, what matters is what you feel you _want to_ give them. Tell me. Were they doing this for you, the Luke fon Fabre that is standing here in front of me, or the boy that disappeared seven years ago? Can you honestly tell me that you are a coward when you just killed a man? Can you honestly tell me that you're not a hard worker when you learned to speak the language you just spoke to me in with more difficulty than I had learning Ispanian?" Combine the difficulty of learning a language with the difficulty of learning to speak from scratch and what speech was? Unprogrammed replicas, Asch had learned, were utter blank slates. "The person who they did all that for wasn't you. They did that for a coward and a weakling and you are not those things. _You _don't owe them anything, not even thanks."

"Are you sure?" Luke seemed caught between knowing Asch was right and knowing he was wrong.

"I'm sure."

Relief and a smile started to bloom, but then Luke realized something. "I do owe Master Van, then."

"It's not owing if they do it because they love you, and if they do it for some other reason," and there was no way Van would let himself get attached to this sacrificial lamb, "then they're not doing it for you and you don't owe them anything either. If your teacher wanted what was best for you…" And wasn't that a big if. "He would want you to live and be happy."

Luke thought Van loved him. No, he thought Van was the only person who loved him, and it started to make Asch feel sick, that happy, innocent smile at the thought of him. "I could go back to Engave. They said that they could always use another errand boy and more help around the fields."

"You want to be a peasant?" Such a modest ambition. Such a simple life.

"I don't like killing, and I do like plants. I wasn't allowed to play around in the flower beds, but Pere was always nice to me. They wouldn't let me talk to him because I was a noble. Being a noble sucks." Asch couldn't argue with him there. "And the monsters here are weak, so if I needed extra money I could kill some, and I'm strong enough that I could probably run errands to St. Binah all by myself before too much longer, they don't have a lot of strong fighters here so I would be a big help keeping the monsters from eating the crops. And the apples taste great because they're really fresh, and if I worked for someone even half the day I would get room and board. I was only there half a day, and I learned how to shop, and someone started to teach me how to cook but we got interrupted because Tear got herself arrested. It was the best day of my life! That I remember, anyway."

Was this how Van had felt, Asch wondered. Confronted with children _who were going to die_. The real Ion had been a god-awful brat behind the façade and Asch had been the son of the man who invaded Hod. Asch hadn't wanted to even tolerate his replica. If he'd recognized him he would never have given Luke a chance to speak, but once he spoke then even once Asch knew what he was…

Luke would die. Luke had been created to die. So that Asch could live.

Luke had grown up with a father and a teacher who were both raising him as a lamb for the slaughter.

Luke's smile dimmed as he looked at Asch's blank mask.

Luke wanted to be just an ordinary person. Asch had thought he was destined to be king. The Score wasn't going to let them have what they wanted. "You're going to have to go home. You're Duke Fabre's heir and Princess Natalia's fiancée." Only he wasn't. "They won't stop looking until they find you." Or think that they have.

"If they think Malkuth kidnapped me again then that war will start." Luke realized something. "You're here to rescue Ion, right? He wasn't kidnapped! He came here to stop there from being a war between Kimlasca and Malkuth! You have to let them go or more people will die!"

A war. _The_ war, the war that Luke was meant to start with a bang. The war that Kimlasca would win.

By Lorelei's name, _what were they doing? _

But what could they do? If it was Luke or countless more innocent children, what could they do?

Damn the Score! Damn Lorelei! Damn it all!

Bring all to ash and ruin: the arte that had sprung from within him wanted to spring to his lips and engulf the world.

So this was how Van felt.

"I have to go home, don't I. Or else they'll blame Malkuth and there will be a war because of me. I'll have to go home and they won't let me outside again until I'm twenty-nine and they might blame Master Van and not let me see him again and…" That devastation began to appear again. "But I don't want more people to die because of me."

Why didn't the replica just stab him in the gut? It would have hurt less and an apple gel would fix that in an instant. There was no way to fix this.

"Luke. Our orders were to recapture Fon Master Ion, and no one can countermand them but Van. Van is at Kaitzur." In other words, get yourself and Ion to Kaitzur and you might be home free. "I'll go report to Van personally right away." And ask him what to do, even though Asch knew the answer was nothing. "Arietta will be bringing Ion back to the Tartarus at some point, probably before too much longer. Tell the Necromancer this when I put you with the others."

"So…"

"I can't go against orders." But he could give them tacit permission to escape. "Who knows who you are?"

"Tear."

"Good. Keep it from the rest. I'm Van's student too," he told Luke, and saw Luke's face light up at the idea that they were practically family. "And Tear is Legretta's student. But a mission is a mission, so be careful."

"I will," Luke promised him.


	3. Scion

_Hmm... No major A/Ns this time._

-

"We have a problem."

"What is it, Asch?"

"The replica. The hyperresonance that brought him here turned him seven somehow."

"Seven?"

"He looks the age he…is."

"That does actually make sense. The seventh fonon controls time, space, and matter, or at least can reshape them. Hyperresonance-based teleportation could work by transferring the fonons and then reassembling them, and while according to the replica data that was used to make him he is seventeen, according to his personal data the replica is seven. Given that fonons contain information on past and future states as well as current, it's possible it used his memories as the marker for what age he should be and put him together resembling you as you were when you were seven."

"He doesn't actually look all that much like me at seven. I thought he was a distant cousin or something, born on the wrong side of the blanket, before Tear called him Luke. That his hair was hiding his face helped, but he's definitely left-handed and his hair has gold highlights instead of crimson."

"Yes… even though he's a perfect isofon there are some deviations. Luckily they weren't important enough to reveal that he was a fake. But this complicates matters. A seven year old claiming to be their son?"

"He figured that out on his own. He doesn't want to go home, Van. He hates it there."

"Tell me what happened," Van commanded quietly, and Asch did.

By the end Van's hand on his shoulder was the only thing that kept him from breaking down. "He wished he was dead, Van. Well, that he'd never been born, technically. He just… wants to get out of there, go someplace he can be himself instead of being trapped in my destiny. But he's willing to go back if that's the only way to keep people from dying, even though… But he has to die, and he has to start that war. He doesn't have a choice, Van, and he doesn't have one because you had him made to give me one. And I chose to leave him there."

"Does he know who you are?"

"Other than someone of Kimlascan noble blood whose parents didn't love them and ran away from home to join the Oracle Knights? Another student of yours? No. But Legretta wondered why I was being so nice to him, and even though she didn't spot who he was she knew that I was because he's just like me, Van. And he knows that too. Someone like him, someone who went through something like what he is, someone who made themselves another life. He _looks up to me_, Van. I'm the person who got him into that mess and he looks up to me. I give him hope." What hurt was, "And it's false hope."

"Tell me you aren't thinking of going in his place."

"It's supposed to be me, Van. He had half a day of running around like a normal peasant child, and it was the happiest day of his life. Just… I know how you feel now. I looked at him and wanted to burn it all. My 'family' that will force him to go there to die, the Order, the Score, Lorelei, the whole damn world. What good is anything if you pay for it in innocent lives? So many innocent lives. And I would rather die than be like them, I would Van."

"He can replace you…"

"He couldn't, Van. He was killing himself trying."

"Listen to me, Asch. He's a replica. He's weaker. He can't do what I need you to. And I need you, Asch. You are the chosen one, remember. The heir of Lorelei's power. He might have taken your name, but he couldn't take your place. He doesn't have your memories, and he can't match your strength. If he goes to Akzeriuth the effort there will kill him. He won't have to live with what he's done. But I need you for more than one task, Asch. He can take your place in the Score, the Score doesn't care. He can take your place as a weapon. But not as a hero."

"Of course he can't be a hero, he's a seven year old whose highest ambition is to be an errand boy."

Van laughed, and Asch had to join in, and yes, it was funny. So much destiny that he was entangled in, and that was what he wanted. And he couldn't have it. It was ironic, it was weird, it was _ridiculous_ that he couldn't have something so simple.

"Damn the Score. Damn Lorelei. Damn this entire world," Asch said again when the temporary relief faded. "Damn them all."

"I know, Asch, I know." Van's voice was tired and old.

"I understand why you did all that to me. I really do. I've been angry at you for it for so long, but I finally understand. If there was some way to save him, I'd do whatever it took, and I used to hate him just like you couldn't have been all that fond of me."

"Asch…"

"I know you don't blame me for what my father did, but when you came there as my teacher all you knew of me was that I was his son and that I was going to destroy a city. Of course you must have hated me. Just like I hated him until I saw him, not just my replica. Not just the one who would destroy Akzeriuth. I forgave him, Van. It was fine that he was going to die when I hated him, but not when I saw him. I've forgiven you, Van, for everything you did to me. But I think I'm still going to be angry at you for his sake, all the same. Angry at _everything_."

"Promise me you won't die there, Asch. Promise me. Because if you die there, then the world's one hope of destroying the Score will die with you. You inherited the power of Lorelei. Your power is equal to that which created the Score."

"Are you serious?"

"That is what your birth score itself states. The one who inherits the power of Lorelei."

"I'm as powerful as the Score."

"You can be."

"If I'm as powerful as the thing that has doomed millions, then I'm strong enough to save a single life. And ten thousand with it. And prevent a war with them."

"It's too soon, Asch. And the only means of destroying the score that will work requires that Akzeriuth's sephiroth be destroyed. You're as powerful as Lorelei, Asch, but the Score isn't Lorelei alone. The Score is every single living human being that follows it like a rappig to the trough or the slaughterhouse. Lorelei is simply a manifestation of the planet's memory, of Auldrant and its people."

"And what different am I from them if I submit to the Score tamely? I refuse to be one of those damn fools, Van! I refuse to be one of the people who send innocent children to destroy cities! You understand, don't you? Tell me, what would you have done if you had warning Hod was going to happen? You would have prevented it, right? And if it had been you who was doomed to destroy it, would you have let Tear be used instead of you?"

That seemed to hit home, and hit hard. "Knowing what I know now… Two sephiroth _have to_ fall if the Score is to be destroyed. Hod was one of them, Akzeriuth is the other. If I had known, then I would have killed myself, if that was the only way to frustrate the Score and save all those lives. But it wouldn't have mattered in the end. The Score would have found some way to fulfill itself, even over my dead body."

"How would the sephiroth falling destroy the Score?"

Van hesitated. "Consider the nature of the Score."

"The Score is Lorelei. Lorelei is the Planet's Memory. The Planet's Memory is Auldrant itself." Asch's blood ran cold.

"The Score cannot be bent. It gives us no freedom to go outside its bounds. It has to be broken."

"Yulia created the Score, didn't she? Through a pact with Lorelei."

"We would need the Key of Lorelei, which is in Lorelei's possession, and do you really think Lorelei would submit tamely to another binding it when part of Yulia's Score states that no other may form a pact with Lorelei for this very reason?"

"How exactly did Yulia make that pact?"

Van was one of her descendants. "The war to control the future, to create a Score, was destroying Auldrant. Lorelei chose Yulia since she was better than the alternatives and was the one who enabled her to do it. He created the Key, he guided her into composing the hymns while posing as a human, and he tricked her into killing him with the Key, which did kill him but resurrected him in the form of the Score. She wished to create the Score, don't doubt that, but she had no idea that her friend had been Lorelei all along, and helping her. He took his true form and pretended to be her enemy in order to enable her to kill him, trapping him first in her sword and then in the core."

"I want to destroy this world. A lot of me does. But how is that different from what we're trying to stop? If there's another way… I must admit defeating Lorelei in battle appeals. As does forcing Lorelei to destroy the Score and clean up its own mess." But aside from that, "So we need a special weapon, hymns, and a manifestation of Lorelei. We have two out of the three."

"What are you…" Then Van got it.

"Lorelei's power is the seventh fonon. So, Lorelei's power is Lorelei itself. If I have inherited Lorelei's power then I contain Lorelei within me." Asch regarded his right hand, then placed it over his heart. "Am I correct?"

"But Lorelei is trapped in the core… but then, a fonon sentience can have multiple manifestations, with differing traits. Luna and Rem, Undine and Celsius, the three Sylphs… Perhaps that is what Yulia truly intended."

"Another Score would be no improvement. But, if Lorelei could be bound to destroy the Score and never permit another one to happen, something along those lines…" Asch closed that hand into a fist. "Then I wouldn't care what happened to me."

"The Key of Lorelei was made out of the pure seventh fonon and possessed Lorelei's own frequency." And a weapon could be anything. A sword, a spear, a lollipop… a bare hand.

"Do you think it would work?" Asch asked him.

"…I would need to go to Yulia City. I have some of Yulia's journals and records that I managed to salvage from Hod there. Is it truly that simple?" Van wondered. "Was this why the Score allowed me to create him?"

"Lorelei ended up sealed inside the Key, however." That seemed likely to be important, and how could they reproduce that?

"That would happen. That would happen if he killed you. It's called the Big Bang Effect, exclusive to perfect isofons. His body would become your vessel. Which, I suppose, means that if this doesn't work then if we have enough time to create a new replica before the year is over and you would still survive to bring about Eldrant."

"I would inhabit his body? What would happen to him?"

"Well, the worst thing that could happen is that he dies. It's also the likeliest, I'm afraid."

"But then, his death was already both the worst and the likeliest. At least this way he would have a chance." Asch looked up at Van. "You're the only one that can sing the hymns. That's good. I wouldn't trust anyone else with Auldrant's future."

Van's raised eyebrow made Asch smile. "Yes, you were planning to destroy it. Destroy it in order to free it from the Score. You're that dedicated to this world's freedom. Dedicated enough to let nothing distract you from it, not power or glory or love. And… a lot of me also wants to destroy it. To cleanse this planet and begin anew. I… It's not right for me to do that. Not any more than it was for Lorelei to destine Hod and Akzeriuth's destructions to, if I'm right, allow the possibility of a new world."

"This world can't survive without Lorelei in the core. The miasma still exists, you've seen it. Lorelei enables the planet storm and the other measures that keep it contained."

"Then we need to destroy the miasma. Good. This might not work, but if it does then at least I get to destroy _something_."

"Even Yulia and Lorelei couldn't destroy the miasma."

"Possibly because they wanted to create a Score. That was what they cared about. What we want… I want the Score destroyed. If the miasma means that the Score is necessary, then I want the miasma destroyed. And I want him to live, and no others like him to have to die. Creating a future of peace would not be right, but I would like to be able to kill anyone who dares try anything." That required not being trapped in the core. "What do you want?"

"The same as you."

"We both want vengeance. But… consider all that they have done for the Score. Mohs and my father and all those people like them._ Imagine_ their dismay when it is all for nothing. The rappigs kicked out of the pen into the monster-filled woods." Oh yes. "No guarantees. Forced to make every choice on their own with no way to find out if it is a good one or not until too late. The _fear_, Van. The fear that we have when we imagine the consequences of going against the Score. Imagine them living in that fear every hour of every day. No protection, no security blanket, nothing but the freedom to die at any moment because they made a mistake the Score would have warned them against. You know how dependant the countries are on the Score. Kimlasca-Lanvaldear would fall apart in a decade without it. Sheridan and Belkend aren't on speaking terms, my Father used to consider secession very seriously until he was promised his son would be king and I don't think he's all that happy that promise will be broken. Without the Score… there will be chaos."

"You're right." Van seemed surprised he hadn't thought of it that way before. "Dying is easy. Living is hard."

"And the more dependent on the Score they are the more they will suffer. I want them to _suffer_, Van. The way we all have." All of the god-generals had suffered because of the Score, even Dist, whose teacher had died so that fomicry would be invented.

"We don't have all that much time. This scared them: they're certain to send him to Akzeriuth as soon as he returns to Baticul. If I write you out an operation plan, can you handle matters here while I have Arietta's pets take me to Yulia City?"

"Of course. What needs to be accomplished?"

"Synchronizing your fon slots is now very, very urgent…"


	4. Serpent

_I think what a lot of people forget about Asch is that he was first raised to be King and then by Van. He's too distraught to think straight in-game, but you don't last long as Special Operations commander for a bunch like that, let along as a politician unless you can play people. I think the skit's title is Asch & Luke 2 or something, and it's Jade and Guy talking about them. Essentially, Luke put himself back together after Akzeriuth and Asch didn't. Asch is still shattered and has yet to accept his responsibility or the extent to which Luke has been fucked over or any of the other things Luke manages to deal with. _

_Luke, with his act together, is seven years old and a mass murderer. He's still essentially running the planet for much of the game, in that what gets done is what he wants done and it can't happen without him. And he's doing that without any prior job experience whatsoever. In fact, you can't get much less suited to it than his upbringing._

_Asch, with his act together, with actual training in political maneuvering and operational strategies, would be freaking scary. It's too bad for them that Van realizes this and while Luke was meant to be disposable and know what was happening to him as he died Van had Asch in his grasp, under his command, for much longer and was planning for Asch to end up on Eldrant with him._

_Luke is as broken as Kaiba Seto after Death-T, coma and all. He loves Van, he wants to include him in his life again, but their bond is broken and Luke's not going to restore it, as much as he wants it back, unless Van not only wants him back (which he does at one point, he asks Luke to join him after Asch refuses), but turns into the man Luke loved (for example, non-genocidal)._

_Asch knew most of what Van was up to. His bonds with Van are not broken, and in the end the strings don't really break until a few seconds before the puppet does. _

_And then, according to the contamination sidequest, he gets brought back to life with Luke's memories. Sucks to be him. _

_In any case, here Asch gets to show off his secret agent bs-ing skills._

-

"Good, you made it." And Guy had joined them? Asch waved for them to put their weapons away. "Stand down. I'm on your side."

Guy stood protectively in front of Luke. "You'll have to forgive us, we've been having a rough time with god-generals lately."

"Guy, this is Asch. He helped us."

"Not all that much, I was under orders until they were countermanded. Putting a prisoner in with the others and talking about a few things with them beforehand certainly wasn't aiding and abetting the kidnappers of Fon Master Ion."

"I wasn't kidnapped." Ion would have been sick of saying this if he wasn't Ion.

"We were told that you were. I reported to General Grants at Kaitzur and received other orders. I am now to escort you to Baticul. However, finding out that Grand Maestro Mohs had misled him like that made it imperative that Van go back to Daath to try to find out what's going on."

"Master Van's not here?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. He gave me a letter for you and asked me to see how far you had progressed. Since we're both his students and training in the same style, I hope I can give you some pointers."

Luke was still disappointed, but that cheered him up a bit. "Sure!"

"The attack on the Tartarus was inexcusable, Colonel Curtiss. Even though the order was given by a Grand Maestro, Largo should have verified the information before wiping out your entire crew. Apparently he had sealed orders that Legretta and I were not informed of in advance." Asch grimaced. "The situation is difficult. Van also left a letter for you, Tear, he's not happy that you were caught up in this, and since you work under Grand Maestro Mohs you need to be warned about what's going on." He held it out. "Burn it after reading it, and stir the ashes well. This is highly classified Order internal affairs information touching on the Closed Score. If your life wasn't in danger already he would not be putting his own life at risk by giving you this information."

"…I'll read it." Tear took it with a grain of salt.

"I have two directives. Two, make sure that you are all placed safely aboard the Katsburg Ferry, and One, escort Lord Luke fon Fabre to Choral Castle."

"Lord Luke fon Fabre?" The young guardian turned to look at him. "Why didn't you tell me you were a lord?"

The Necromancer's expression indicated that he wasn't entirely surprised.

"Actually," Asch corrected her, "Luke is the heir apparent to the Kimlascan throne due to his engagement to Princess Natalia. His kidnapping _at _the same time as Fon Master Ion,_ while_ Commandant Grants was present, _by_ an agent of Grand Maestro Mohs, has made the current situation highly explosive. The problem is that the hyperresonance that brought you here turned him into a child. Apparently it's very possible, but highly technical. If he's returned in this state they're likely to believe that Malkuth is responsible and since he was already kidnapped by Malkuth once this would provide ample casus belli."

"Turned you into a kid? How old were you before?"

"Physically seventeen, functionally seven," Asch answered Anise before Luke could. "That's the reason I'm here to escort him to Choral Castle first. When Van thought that you were kidnapped again, Luke that was the first place he checked and they discovered a secret passage. There's a device there that appears to have been used to attempt to… We'll talk in private later, but it seems to be what's responsible for your amnesia."

"Really?"

"It's technical and I try to avoid Dist, but… This won't be anything resembling a magic cure for your amnesia, but it can probably allow us to fix the problem that caused you to end up seven when you traveled through a hyperresonance, meaning you could be turned back." Asch looked at the rest of them again. "You will all need to come with me as witnesses. Also, you would be much better received in Baticul if you came back with Lord Luke safe, well, and intact."

"Why would you need witnesses?" Guy was cautious? Good.

"Because I am, sadly the only person that Van trusts for oversight on this and I am not someone Kimlasca would trust."

"Not someone Kimlasca would trust?" Jade repeated.

Asch gave him a look. "I'm sure the family resemblance hasn't escaped you. Nor Legretta's 'recognized offspring' or whatever sugarcoated term for bastard she used."

"You're Luke's half-brother?"

"Obviously not. Lady Suzanne was too sickly for more than one child and Duke Fabre is Belkendian, not Kimlascan royalty. There are doubts about Princess Natalia's parentage because she possesses blonde hair, even though there are people with hair of that color relatively recently on both sides of her family tree due to alliance marriages with Malkuth. I, however, have red hair." Asch pulled a strand of it forward. "It's even darker than Luke's. The Kimlascan throne has always been held by someone with hair of red. There are legends that claim this is essential. Natalia's children won't inherit red hair from her unless she marries a redhead. Hence, she was betrothed to Luke as soon as they verified his gender. However, many are not happy with the idea of the next king being the son of the duke of Belkend."

"And in that scenario a son of King Ingobert, legitimate or not, would become a natural gathering point for those opposed to Luke's ascension to the throne."

"Exactly. If Luke dies while I am with you I will be the prime suspect and Van, who has been my foster father since I was sent to the Oracle Knights, will also be held responsible. However, since we were going to be blamed anyway, he decided that there was no reason not to get even further caught up in this mess, especially since Luke is family and also his student and there are currently a great many parties that want him dead."

"Is that why they kept me in the manor?"

"One of several reasons. Your condition meant that you didn't exactly act the part of a proper future monarch, for one. It was stupid of them to think that your memories would just appear one day out of the fon belt." Ridiculous. "If they'd trained you hard instead of giving up on you then you would be a lot further along. Van's very impressed with you. To get up to your level of swordplay you normally need to start _very_ young, and with all the nerve and muscle damage plus your age you essentially… If you didn't have a great aptitude for it your current level of competence would have been forever out of your reach. He told me that you even had to learn how to walk from scratch. I think you might have told me that and I didn't believe you. That was why he had to focus on training muscle memory and skimp on subjects like fonon fields. They aren't much use if you can't manage to use any strike artes because you lack the coordination."

"How old are you?" Luke asked next.

"Younger than Princess Natalia, thank Lorelei, but not by all that much. The Queen had a rough pregnancy." Which would have given Ingobert reason to look elsewhere if he weren't so devoted. "So we're about the same age, and apparently we looked a lot alike before I was shipped off to Daath. There were some parties that thought your amnesia was false and that the kidnappers had switched the two of us, which means that… Oh, Lorelei, I hate politics. Princess Natalia can have that snake pit and welcome to it."

"So I really have to go back or you and Master Van will get in trouble too?"

"Well, when you reach twenty you'll have your majority and he won't be able to confine you against your will without sowing doubts about your competence that would make it almost impossible for you to take the throne. Van was planning to ask you to come join us then. I think he hoped I would want to go back to Baticul with you when you married Natalia, either that or succeed him as head of the Oracle Knights. If I pledged you my sword, that would remove the doubts of the loyal and I'd make a rather durable lightning rod when it came to the disloyal."

"Really? Do you think you would?" Of course Luke wouldn't turn down an invitation from Master Van like that.

"Who knows? Except Lorelei, of course." Asch's smile was only partially at the hidden joke. "Of course, I'd rather live in Daath than Baticul and you'd rather live in Engave."

"Engave?" Guy turned around halfway and looked down at Luke.

"St. Binah is pretty cool too. I got to see how they make gels."

Guy laughed. "Yeah, he's been having a regular second childhood."

"Well, it's the first he remembers," Asch pointed out. "Van didn't tell me all that much about you, Luke, since he wasn't allowed to tell you about me, but from you told me… I wish there was some way to keep you from having to go to Baticul, Luke. We'll try to arrange things so that you can get out of there soon, but I can't make promises."

"I'll be fine. It's only three more years."

"Which is almost half the length of the life you remember," Asch pointed out.

"…I don't really remember the first four years that well. I keep a diary, so I'm fine, but I haven't told them because I don't want them to worry anymore. Do you think this machine could help with that? If I don't remember more than three years back all my life I'm not going to be a very good king."

"So double the life you remember. But yes, it should be able to help with that."

"Oh?" Jade seemed surprised with this.

"Apparently whatever they did attempting to get his memories had side effects. Dist says he can fix all of those, but not the main effect. If he can't then I'll stand over him with my sword until he does."

"How long will this detour to Choral Castle take?"

"As long as it takes. Oh, you can leave in advance but if you go to Baticul with a Luke who is still a child or no Luke at all there will be a declaration of war."

"I didn't know it was that bad." Ion seemed surprised.

"Well, it is. Kimlasca wasn't able to keep most of the territory it conquered in the Hod war, and they seem to feel that they're about ready to give it another shot. Mohs isn't helping matters. Unless Van can find something in the Score to contradict his reading before the end of this year there's going to be a war."

"It's predicted in the Score?"

"Mohs thinks so."

"Why are you telling us this?" Jade asked him.

"Because we're sitting on a powder keg and if one of you fumbles around in the dark and sets something off we're in a lot more danger than we are if you have some idea of what you're doing. Also, in for a penny, in for a pound." Van and Asch would be in trouble with the Order and Kimlasca no matter what they did. "Van is a descendant of Yulia, which means there isn't any part of the Score he can't read, even if it's not as easy for him to find what he wants as it is for a Fon Master. There may be a way to avert the war, but it's tied to Luke's birth score." Asch's, technically.

"Mine?" He could do something?

Asch nodded. "We need to find out more, but I'll tell you what I can when we're alone." He turned to the others. "I have disguises and false passports hidden nearby."


	5. Hatchling

_In which the world as they know it ends. _

_12/6/10 - yes, it's just a repost of the original ending, slightly edited. See my profile for details._

_How the hymn was created: I listened to Tear doing the grand fonic hymn a few times and examined the hymn words. I decided that the hymn language in them was probably between Yulia and Lorelei, and decided to make a new hymn language by picking syllables that had similar feels to the ones in the orignal hymn, and assigning one syllable to each fonon. Then, I figured out what each subhymn would have them say if it was a normal arte (like Jade's 'Oh admonishing melody, arise in the name of the Necromancer'), took the words in those phrases (ignoring some articles and such), and figured out which fonon best symbolized each of those words (like anger or red would be fifth fonon). Jade's mystic arte would be seventh-sixth-seventh-fourth-second-seventh-third, by the way. _

_I then lost my notes as to the phrases I picked and which syllables went with each fonon. D'oh. _

_Am I the only one who thinks never hearing Van sing the Grand Fonic Hymn was a missed moment of awesome? _Damn, _that voice. _

* * *

He should be able do to this: it had to be within his power, if he had Lorelei's power. It was hyperresonance that had turned Luke into the child he had never been, and Asch wielded that same power.

Ever since their fon slots had been synchronized, the real reason they'd come to Choral Castle, Asch had felt truly connected to him. The child whose fonons had come from Asch in the first place, the one who… Who could end the tyranny of the Score along with him.

The golden power answered his call and flowed to Luke, not harming him as Asch had been taught to use hyperresonance but embracing him. Asch guided it to use his own body as a pattern, find the similar pattern within Luke. Strangely, his clothes grew with him as they had shrunk with him, because a body should have clothes that fit it according to this logic.

Luke didn't look exactly the same as him, hair far more golden than Asch's own… and turning more and more golden as Asch watched. He withdrew his power and it stopped. Frowning, he conjured it again. The more seventh fonon Luke was exposed to the more golden his hair grew. Was Asch the same? Or was it that the fonon was red-gold in its raw form and Luke was simply the pure fonon shaped?

Purity. His key. He knew it would work. If they didn't need the Hymns he wouldn't have waited for Van. But no, he needed someone to make a pact with.

But did he want that? Luke… was his. Someone else commanding Luke… No, Van would be creating the pact with _him_, Asch reminded himself as he examined Luke's hair. Putting it back in place his fingers traced features that looked so different on Luke that he really couldn't understand how anyone could possibly mistake them for one another. The nose, the mouth, the delicate curve of the neck…

And there he had to jerk back, because he'd felt this strange and urgent desire to _squeeze_.

It wasn't that he still hated Luke on some level, which was his first thought. No, the desire to kill him was… anything but hate. Yet strangely similar. Asch had thought he knew what bloodlust was, but this was something different.

Akzeriuth… No one but him could harm Luke. No one had the right. Luke's fonons had come from within him…

…leaving behind only the ashes of the sacred flame. His eyes widened in realization.

Asch didn't hold Lorelei's manifestation. Not anymore.

Luke _was_ Lorelei's manifestation. The Score taken form, the thing he hated above all else lying here on the replication machine. Utterly helpless.

Someone walked in. He would recognize Van's tread anywhere. "Van. What title does the Akzeriuth score use?"

"Young scion of Lorelei."

"It was his score all along," Asch realized. "The Score really is that invasive. Even we were manipulated by it in fighting it."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Look at him, Van." More delicate than Asch, left handed… "He's my perfect isofon and yet he's more different from me than Sync is from Ion, try as he might to distance himself from his original. I don't think… I don't think he's _my_ replica. You extracted the replica data from me, but…"

"But you inherited Lorelei's power. Yet_ you_ aren't Lorelei's power. Luke, however, is entirely composed of the seventh fonon and that is required for a sentience." Van came up next to him. "I realized it after re-reading Yulia's notebooks and then reviewing my notes on the Score. She had someone with Lorelei's power be born so that the future could start to change, but the most important of those deviations was permitting a manifestation of Lorelei to form, even though the Score prohibited it so that the Score could remain absolute. His headaches, the voices he hears: I thought they were caused by you. According to Dist's readings I was wrong."

"Can we still create a pact?"

"He is the sentience we would need, your perfect hyperresonance the weapon. But apparently the pact's maker is the one who must sing the hymns, compose them, and wield the weapon, and your power can only be wielded by yourself. It would be the same if Luke were to kill you. That was the first problem I found."

"Is there any way I can learn Yulia's hymns?"

"No. They're restricted to her bloodline, and while I could use them to summon Lorelei to my aid I couldn't use them for a pact."

"It's been two thousand years, is there any chance I'm a descendant?"

Van shook his head. "The family has always been small. Unusually small." Whenever there was more than one heir born, the spares died, as Van was scored to die in a couple years. He wasn't really fazed by that, much less as obsessed as the real Ion had been.

"Well, how were they created?"

"Lorelei traveled with Yulia while she quested in search of him and inspired her."

"In other words, there was no point to her locating him until she was able to create a pact." Asch stroked Luke's hair, sighing. "What do the hymns have to be?"

"One for each fonon, first through seventh."

"I don't think it will be that hard."

"It took her almost a year. According to her journals, he inspired each one, and the circumstances grew more and more difficult."

"Was the first fonic hymn, nightmare, the first?"

"Yes."

"That might explain why this seems so easy." Asch bent forward, lips almost touching Luke's ear.

He could feel the first fonons answering the song's call. Luke's somewhat pained expression eased as the ache of the replication machine's tests faded away and he fell into a slumber it would take more than a simple shout or tap to wake him out of.

"Yulia wrote that he simply asked her to sing a lullaby, and what she heard as normal words came out as hymn words."

"What did you hear?"

"Sae lune sae lae na lae na lune sae." No glyph appeared around Van.

"Stasis." Asch knew the name as soon as he heard it. "He's not just asleep but frozen in time." Although time moved on around him, and he could be hurt. "The second fonon, earth." He opened his mouth but nothing came. "It's there, I just can't get a grip on it yet."

"That was what she wrote, that something needed to catalyze the artes."

"It's… protection."

"The second hymn is force field. It was an attack on Yulia herself that catalyzed it, and Lorelei's avatar's fear for her life. Apparently a bond between the pact maker and Lorelei is necessary."

"And I have the first level of that bond by virtue of being his source?"

"And almost the second, it seems. She couldn't even truly get a grip on it until that key instant. It seems he already wants to protect you."

"It's not to protect him, he wants to protect me," Asch realized, and sang.

"Na sae dia na lune lune lae." Van smiled. "You're doing well. Next is the third fonon. It's an enhancement art, holy song."

"Endure. This next one will be easy." He sang their pledge.

"Lune lae na lune lae ri lune lae lune."

"…I want to call it holy song, but that's already taken. Heaven's blessing."

"The next is fourth fonon, revitalize. It heals everyone it can reach."

That was easy. They had both shared each other's pain, that was the requirement.

"Dia sae na dia ri lae lune."

"Rebirth. It restores the dead as well as heals." Not that there were any dead here, though the greenish light promised they would be healed if they were.

"The fifth fonon, fire. Judgment. It attacks all enemies."

"That one… _Oh, do we have enemies_."

"Lune ri sae na ri lae ri ri lune."

"Wrath."

Watching Asch's face as he'd sung the words and seeing again why his title was the Bloody, "I'd say it is," Van agreed. "The last one is the hymn of light. It's a surprisingly conventional attack arte, grand cross."

"That one… there has to be more to it." Asch looked at Luke. "Oh." Yes, ouch.

"Lune lae na dia sae. What exactly did that arte do?"

"Revelation? What a magic lens does, as well as damage, to an enemy. Cures ailments if cast on an ally, but it does a bit of damage in the process. Knowledge is power, but the truth hurts."

"And that only leaves the seventh. She gained that one when he faked his death. He couldn't be in two places at once and he needed her to go against Lorelei with all her might."

"Oh, I've thought of him as doomed for far too long now. You are…" he told Luke, knowing it was true. Luke was the reason he would save this world and the reason he had first truly wanted it dead and dust.

"Lune sae na lae dia ri lune lune."

"Nirvana." As Asch spoke that word Luke awakened: Asch hadn't cast revelation on Luke but on himself. Nirvana, however, was more than enough.

"Asch." Luke smiled at him.

"You're seventeen again," Asch told him since it didn't seem to have registered.

"But I'm not seventeen, am I? Jade told me what the signs of a replica were so I would know how I was different from one. I think it was to either test or reassure me, or both. We aren't the same so he thought you couldn't be my original, but you are. I know it now, somehow." Luke raised his left hand to hold the one of Asch's that reached towards Luke's face hesitantly. "And I know there's something you need to do."

"Luke, this isn't just about what we need. It's about what we want. What do you want?"

"For there not to be a war. To be able to stay with you, and Master Van, and travel, and see everything. To be free, all of us." Luke sat up, leaned against Asch. "I thought it would be possible, with you there, but then I knew it wouldn't be, because there are things people have to do, like it or not. I wish it wasn't that way."

"We can change it, Luke."

"I know. The power that let me escape the manor can. Our power. We're all chained down, Asch. I knew that even though I didn't know what the Score did besides tell people what the weather would be. Please, Asch. I want to be free even if it kills me."

"Do you think it will?"

"It will. But I won't be dead. I was dead in the manor, buried alive. You'll free me, won't you?"

"Yes. I will." Asch gathered his power, readying to destroy. Luke closed his eyes. "Sae lune sae lae na lae na lune sae." Go to sleep, Luke, so you won't suffer. Although a Grand Fonic Hymn didn't cast the components, only the greater arte. "Na sae dia na lune lune lae, lune lae na lune lae ri lune lae lune, dia sae na dia ri lae lune, lune ri sae na ri lae ri ri lune, lune lae na dia sae, lune sae na lae dia ri lune lune," and, finally, "Die, Luke," he murmured with a tenderness normally reserved for words of affection as he plunged the hyperresonance down into his heart and disintegrated his body into nothing but raw fonons.

Then he turned that same power to reshaping, as the Key contained the Sword that absorbed fonons and the Jewel to disperse them into the new form, writing the pact into Luke as he recreated him.

Luke opened golden eyes to whisper, "Thank you," and then vanished.

"Where did he go?" Van demanded.

"To destroy the Score." Asch closed his eyes. "He's still connected to me. Ha!"

"What are you smirking about?"

"The fonstones of the Score accumulated enough power over the millennia to destroy all of the miasma. He just gathered them all up and used them. They vanished from in front of so many people's eyes! I can see their memories, feel their dismay, shock… And it hasn't even had time to sink in!" Asch's delight vanished. "Oh…"

"What now?"

"Lorelei. He's dead, now. It was such a relief, to be able to return to nothing but the fonons he sprang from. I hated him, but I didn't realize that he was memory. The memories of everything that happened to everyone because of the Score: they were in him, they _were_ him. He loved Yulia. He loved this world, and to be responsible for its suffering and to suffer as it…" Asch had tasted Lorelei's loss and regret and recognized his own feelings for Natalia. "We wanted him to suffer for what happened to us but he suffered everything that we did. He shared everyone's pain. For two thousand years alone… He wanted Luke to apologize to you for him, although it wouldn't be enough. Two thousand years, that was how long it took to save enough fonons to create another manifestation. He had to hold back the miasma, the… The Score wasn't meant to last this long."

"Yulia wanted to end the war, and save the world from the miasma."

"The miasma was the seventh fonon itself, corrupted by death and the artes they used to try to take control of Lorelei by force."

"She suspected that."

What Luke did next made Asch able to laugh again. "The only thing he knew about the Score was that it predicted the weather, it's hard to miss that! So he just changed the weather. It will be the opposite of whatever the Score predicted everywhere. Snow in Chesedonia! Desert heat in Keterberg! It will be chaos!" It caused him such delight! "In Yulia City they want to read the Score to find out what happened to the miasma, but there are no Score fonstones to read!"

"Do you know what will happen as well as what is?"

"No! I don't know! And he doesn't either!" Fantastic! "Chaos! No one knows what's going to happen, for the first time in over two thousand years! It's glorious!" Asch grinned at Van. "Come on, can't you feel it? You're a seventh fonist, aren't you? Yulia's descendant? How does the fonon feel?"

Van closed his eyes. "…Wild. Free." Even after all this there was a note of surprise in the second word.

"And good luck to them if they try to tame him! He'll take away all their memories, turn them into rappigs, something _unpredictable_ if they even think about it! Will they go into denial? Listen to charlatans and have their hopes dashed? _I can't wait_."

When Luke appeared again, small again (he liked it better that way, people were nicer), Asch grabbed his hands and spun them both around laughing, like the child Luke was and he had been once, so long ago. If there was a note of gloating, of cruelty to it, that people would suffer as they deserved, Luke didn't care.

And Vandesdelca approved.


	6. Ivy

_The word is 'schadenfreude,' pleasure derived from other people suffering what you believe they deserve._

_Man, English has a word for everything. Sure, it's stolen from another language, but that's how we get practically all our words._

* * *

"So, what do you think of the real me?" Luke asked them, swinging down over a ledge (very glad to have his normal coordination back), in order to surprise them. Of course, this seventeen-year-old body wasn't actually his real form, but they thought it was. He couldn't wait until Asch and Van's plan was done and he could go back to being small.

"Luke! Glad you're back, man." Guy clapped him on the back and Luke laughed cheerfully.

Jade was finally able to put certain worries to rest. While exposure to the sun could tint hair more golden, it was doubtful that Luke, confined to the manor, would have gotten more than an active god-general. He'd thought that perhaps the evident (and dye-free: dye couldn't match that gradation) difference between Asch and Luke's hair colors might be due to Asch's hair darkening as he aged, a common phenomenon. Some children born blond could be brown haired by the time they reached adulthood: Jade's own hair had once been much lighter.

But Luke's now appeared even more gold-tinted than before, indicating that although it had indeed darkened as he aged Asch's was indeed a purer red. Jade wondered who Asch's mother was. Quite possibly some back-country minor noble who hadn't married into Malkuth's blonds recently. What made the red hair of the Kimlascan nobility so atypical was that it was not only a true red, as opposed to a more common orangey-brown or pink, but a dominant trait, or possibly gene complex, which was what made Princess Natalia possible. If her parents had both been carrying blonde recessives…

Still, they were involved in a peace process. _Not_ the time to investigate if Princess Natalia was illegitimate or Lord Luke fon Fabre a replica.

Asch's hair looked like blood, Luke's like fire. How appropriate for someone with the last name fon Fabre.

"Luke, I'm glad you're finally okay."

"It wasn't your fault Tear, it was freaky hyperresonance stuff."

"You're a noble, and you're kind of hot now that you're older." Anise sighed. "Too bad you're engaged. Could I be your mistress? Pretty please?"

"Sorry, Natalia would kill me?" Luke backed away quickly. Seeing Asch had come down the stairs he dove behind him for cover.

Asch quirked an eyebrow at him. "In any case," Luke's shenanigans aside, "Fon Master Ion? Could you please come with me?"

"Why?" Anise's tone was sharp. "He's not going anywhere without me."

"That's what we're going to have to discuss. I'm sure you're all aware of the practice of having body doubles for high-ranking nobles?" It was a measure with a risk of being impersonated, but having a high-level double who could take a king's place when there was a danger of assassination attempts was usually considered well worth it. The problem was finding someone high-level willing to sit around and wait to be needed. "Sync the Tempest was originally accepted for training because he has a great resemblance to Ion. That's why the mask, and the spiked hair. Actually, since he cuts his even though it looks like someone took a hedge trimmer to it, Ion, we're going to have to measure your hair and cut down one of the wigs. Arietta is…" he searched for a word.

"Being Glomietta."

That worked. "And Mohs and others opposed to the peace effort know that you are the key to it. May I examine your face?"

"Yes, if it will help."

Asch examined him, taking his chin and tilting his face to look at various angles. "We're going to need cheek pads, your face is much rounder than his. He's leaner in general, but your robes will hide that. And since he wears that mask he's much paler than you… The fact he wears the mask means you could easily just switch places, provided you're willing to cut your hair."

"If it's to help prevent this war I'm willing." Of course.

"Anise, Ion, you're going to have to stick close to Sync. He takes offense to being treated as a 'mere' body double, since that implies it's the only reason he holds his rank, and that meant that we haven't been able to get him to learn to copy your mannerisms well enough. Try to keep him from doing anything too out of character."

"Gotcha."

"He's in the other wing, go up three flights of stairs." They were dismissed.

"Come on, Ion." She was going to get to boss around a body double! And keep Ion undercover! This was real Fon Master Guardian stuff, like in the case studies! This was going to be fun! Not to mention that Sync was all arrogant and it would be nice to make Ion act like he had a spine for once. Maybe he'd learn something.

"We have two choices for traveling to Baticul. One, the Katsburg Ferry, which involves either explaining how we got past Kaitzur unnoticed or crossing to the Malkuth side undetected and then crossing back, and two, flying there on some of Arietta's pets. The second option requires Sync acting as Ion's body double for the duration, since she's quite likely to attempt to fly off with him. Sync would be able to convince her he's not Ion afterwards and make her put him back."

"I vote for flying," Luke told them. "I've never done it before. Well, I haven't been on a ship at sea either, not that I remember, but flying sounds more fun. And it would get us to Baticul faster, so we can stop the war."

Jade considered that. "We've already lost a great deal of time. While the legitimate route might be more suited for diplomacy because of the fact that it's slow and so people don't have surprises sprung on them, I think under the circumstances I'll have to cast my vote for the carrier pigeons." How would Arietta react to them being called that?

It wasn't fontech, but, "Same here. Your mother has to be worried sick, Luke." While she was only the wife of his enemy_, Guy's mother_ had been 'only the wife' of Duke Fabre's enemy. Still, she wasn't a bad person and she already had an incurable disease. Anything else would be unnecessary overkill.

"Then I vote for flying too," Tear agreed. Luke's poor mother! Tear hadn't known her mother and therefore had a somewhat idealized vision of the relationship in her head, the mother she dreamed about.

"Sync wants to get this over with, too," Asch added. "So it will depend on how soon they can get their act together." The two (or three, with Anise) actors in that little play.

People were searching for the Fon Master. Searching for explanations. Delaying his reappearance until they got to Baticul would just give it more time to stew.

Asch and Luke were the only ones who knew what they would be getting into. Asch hadn't told Van, since he wanted it to be a surprise. There had, however, been an argument with Luke over continuing the insane weather when they landed for a meal briefly.

"What will happen to the crops? And you're the one who bound me not to toy with people, Asch. No. I'm giving control of the weather back to Sylph."

"But…"

"I know how exactly how you feel, and it's still freaking me out a bit. You're…" Luke had to look outside his own experience for words. "Getting off on it."

"It's _glorious._"

Luke looked at Van for advice and/or support. "Sylph?"

"She's… they're… They used to handle it, before the Score. I think it's best to just give control back to the others. I mean… Things should be unpredictable, but not planned unpredictable? The weather should be chaos. They never could predict it in the Dawn Age. It was always a gamble, like two/thirds chance of rain and it could be sunny all day, when Sylph was the weather and was free. The seventh fonon is made up of all the others. Binding Lorelei bound all of them."

"If that's how it should be then Luke is right, Asch."

"I know. I suppose it's a good thing the pact forces Luke to disobey me when it comes to some things. You're far too kind and eager to please. If it were up to you everyone would have perfect weather." Asch scowled at the thought of that.

"Maybe. I could never do anything right, so if people asked me to do things for them and I could it would be hard to say no. And I don't like this, Asch. You may enjoy it, but they're scared and…"

"Ssh, Luke." Asch reached out and stroked his cheek. "Their fear is your fear, their pain is your pain. But you know it's for the best."

"I know. They have to learn how to take care of themselves again, I can't do it for them, they forced Lorelei to try and he couldn't. But I can't enjoy their pain, Asch. I… I don't think there's anyone that's evil. They're just confused, or they want things to be simple, or they can't think straight, or…"

"You may forgive them on even the flimsiest of excuses, but I won't. And that's why you have to obey me when it comes to some things." Asch drew his sword. "Now we should probably start sparring before someone wanders over to find out why we're not."

* * *

"It appears the threat of war is very real," Jade commented after they had landed. Even from the air they had been able to see an increased military presence on Baticul's defenses and entrances.

Asch just smiled, then assumed a serious and commanding look. "Sync, Anise, Ion, be ready."

As soon as 'Ion' was recognized they were swarmed. "Fon Master!"

"What should we do?"

"Fon Master, tell us what to do!"

Even the soldiers lost discipline amidst the mob, or some of them did, and it took the White Knight elite to escort them to the upper levels. "What happened?" Tear looked down behind them as the lift ascended. "I was here not that long ago, and..." There hadn't been the people camped on the streets, the smell of mold and mildew, the closed stores, the patrolling soldiers, the air of suppressed panic.

The most high-ranking of their escort explained that, "Not long after the Score disappeared it started to rain here. Baticul has never been flooded, the Score stated that it never would. The lower levels are below sea level, and the pumps were meant to keep water _out_. Since there was water_ in_ the basin, and not a normal rain but hundreds of times more than the pumps were designed for it was able to rust some of the pipe mechanisms. We evacuated the lower levels so most of the citizens are alive, but everything below the mall district is flooded."

"So the Score did disappear?" Ion (Sync) was barely able to hide the same glee there would have been in his original's voice at that idea.

"Yes. It's only been a few days, but…" The man got a hold of himself. "His majesty is eagerly awaiting your arrival." They shouldn't talk in front of people who might gossip. Not when trained eyes were well able to see that Baticul was a powder keg. So many people in so little space, so much fear…

"How is Princess Natalia holding up?" Guy was the one to ask, although Luke really should have been, his pointed gaze reminded her fiancé.

"She's been wearing herself to the bone. His majesty has been busy formulating strategy, so care for the city has fallen to Princess Natalia. According to Grand Maestro Mohs the lower levels shouldn't have flooded despite the Score's disappearance. If she hadn't ordered what troops would obey her at that point to evacuate the citizens by force if necessary despite his opposition far more would have drowned. As it was, some refused to leave their homes for the streets despite all the warning signs, and she was forced to abandon them when the water started rising fast enough the engineers knew it was a sign the barrier was about to burst."

Although Asch pitied Natalia, that had been glorious. "Truly a sad day, when men are punished for adhering to the Score that Yulia promised would bring prosperity and the faithless who refuse to follow it are the ones that survive. What has the world come to?"

"You're right, Asch." Yes: Van was a wonderful actor, to pretend to mourn.

Jade, Guy, and Tear had picked up that they had something to do with this. Anise soon picked it up from them. Ion had always been unreadable: the mask didn't help. Sync needed to bury his face in his hands, aping mourning, to hide his grin. His shaking shoulders were easy to mistake for suppressed tears instead of laughter.

"Luke!" Natalia greeted them when they got off the elevator, gasping for breath. A runner must have been sent to fetch her: she'd made an effort to wipe off her arms but she had clearly been pitching in right beside her men. She had also been kept somewhat isolated from the true power of the score: her father hadn't wanted her to discover her love's death sentence nor Mohs her true origin. When it had vanished she had gone to work, not poured her efforts into regaining it. "Oh, Luke, I thought something terrible had happened to you!" She flung her arms around him. "Father and Uncle were talking about you, and they would stop whenever I came into the room… You must come see Aunt Suzanne!"

"The king ordered us to bring Lord Luke to him as soon as possible the instant he appeared," the knight objected.

Natalia stared him down. "He has been missing for weeks: a few more hours will mean nothing! And whatever father wants him for, it can't be as urgent as his health or my aunt's!" Turning away from the luckless officer, she told him that, "Aunt Suzanne's health has been declining: all this damp isn't good for her, she's been so worried, and they're running out of her medicine. Oh, Luke, you must hurry and let her see that you're alive!" Natalia started to drag him along. The Natalia they both knew would never have done something so undignified as run.

"Hey, wait up!" Guy sprinted to catch up to his master.

"Go with them, Asch," Van ordered. This was his mother, after all. "I'll escort the envoy and Fon Master Ion to the palace."

"I'll meet you there."

Asch leaned against the wall by the door as his bedridden mother wept in her son's arms. Guy kept to the other side, guarding the entrance and staying well away from Princess Natalia, who was clearly in need of a hug as she stood beside her cousin watching helplessly.

When the doors flew open Asch and Guy had their swords drawn and pointed at the intruder before they realized who it was they were threatening. They hurriedly backed down and bowed: King Ingobert had brought his personal guard, who were clearly on edge. "Natalia!"

Despite his angry tone Natalia was unrepentant. "Yes, Father?"

"I ordered him brought to me at once!"

"Father! What could possibly be more urgent than your sister's life?" Natalia's hands were on her hips as she demanded he explain himself. "And why is Grand Maestro Mohs here, and why have you spent so long closeted with that fool? What could possibly be more important than our people's lives?"

"King Ingobert acts as a true man of royal blood should, putting his people's long term prosperity over minor deviations." Mohs stepped forward, ignoring Natalia's glare. "Light of the Sacred Flame, inheritor of Lorelei's power." Mohs knelt to Luke. Mohs knelt to Luke, as Van and the others came forward through the caravan that had invaded Asch's former home. Mohs knelt to Luke, the one he had intended to sacrifice.

And, in fact, still did. Watch, Asch's glance instructed Van. Watch, and enjoy.

"What are you talking about?" Luke stared at him. "All of you, get out of here! The last thing my mother needs is to catch something from you people! Uncle, what are you thinking?"

"Luke, you must come to the palace right away."

"I just got home!"

"Luke, please go." Suzanne's arms were so frail. "I'll still be here when you get back, I promise."

"…Alright." Luke hugged her and then strode out of the room fuming like a small thundercloud.

Asch hung back with Van and nudged him to lean down for a private exchange. "Just wait until you see what's left of Daath." The power flows and Efreet's freedom had set off Mt. Roneal. There hadn't been an explosion, sadly, just the advancing lava. It was more than enough. The catacombs and secret passages had given it a downhill path right to the heart of the cathedral.

"Am I correct about what they want Luke for?"

"Mohs wasn't foolish enough to miss the potential for disrupting the Score Luke fon Fabre embodied either. That was why he was so focused on having him die safely at Akzeriuth before doing anything that could have an impact." The corner of Asch's mouth turned up. "Now, however?"

"I think we're going to need Sync and Ion to switch so Sync can leave. He's finding it almost impossible not to burst out laughing." Van himself was smiling.

"And miss this? I suppose I could show him a memory of it later."

"You can do that?"

"It's priceless, Van. _Priceless_." Asch took a deep breath and thought of staff meetings to clamp down on his own jubilation. Staff meetings, formal ceremonies… "But being in the center of the action is so much better than memory." Controlling the outcome? Surprise? "Priceless."


	7. Cuckoo

_This chapter and the one after it are the ones that needed the most changes made, due to wandering off in an entirely different direction from what I had planned. However, due to drama, like my apartment flooding and my laptop being busted, I kind of wasn't able to go over it this week to make additional changes. Luckily, a 22 buck case allowed me to salvage my old hard drive and hook it up to my apartmentmate's through a USB port like a memory stick, so I still have all my fic files instead of losing everything I'd done since I backed up to my memory stick a few weeks ago. _

_So I thought I'd post this now, since it's already three days late (I posted the others yesterday, since they didn't need editing), and go over it again later. I'd already made a couple of changes, but the balance between chibific and weird mythology/Asch being evil needs more fine-tuning.  
_

* * *

The throne room was quickly emptied of all but the key parties. Asch wondered how they'd gotten away with excluding Jade. Obviously they wouldn't want an officer of Malkuth involved in what they thought they could accomplish.

"God-general? A moment, please." 'Ion' shooed everyone out of earshot and had them speak facing the wall so lip movements couldn't help them piece together the Fon Master's words. "Asch? I love you, man. Mohs was bowing and scraping to me. To me, one of the disposable replicas! Do you know how long I've wanted to see him humiliated like that?"

"You didn't break character, did you?"

"Hardest thing I've ever done. How long can you keep this up?" Sync wanted to milk this charade for as long as he possibly could.

"As long as you can. Let's see how long we can torment them with false hope, shall we?"

"I_ love_ this. Screw dumping them into the miasma, this is _so_ much better." It was wonderful to watch them squirm.

"Small problem: Luke can't act and he's pact-bound to keep people from creating another Score. He's focusing on his anger for our mother's sake to keep playing the brat, but I might have to either sing the hymn or signal you to send him away at some point or he'll give the game away, possibly by vaporizing Mohs."

"Dammit! That would be over too quickly. Sure, just signal me." Sync headed towards the thrones: they had to keep the conversation short or people would have come up to see what was going on despite Anise and Ion standing guard to ensure the Fon Master's privacy.

Natalia was seated on the edge of hers, tapping one of the armrests impatiently and broadcasting that her royal highness was unamused by this. Luke stood before them, the focus of the entire room, as Mohs moved to stand at the king's right and Van and Guy flanked Luke, slightly behind him as 'Ion' came up to stand next to Luke. Tear, like Asch, hovered in the background

"Guards, leave us," Ingobert ordered. His gaze dropped to Van, Guy, 'Sync', Asch, Tear, and Anise. He couldn't send away Fon Master Guardians, but the others?

"Your majesty, Van and Tear Grants are the descendants of Yulia. It cannot be coincidence that they were drawn to the side of the Scion of Lorelei."

"They may remain then, Mohs. Luke, dismiss your servant."

"The Score states that the young scion will bring his people to the miner's city. I can think of no one more qualified than his liegeman." Guy wasn't technically Luke's liegeman, not by Hod tradition, but close enough. Mohs turned to address them. "As for the two god-generals," 'Sync' and Asch, "Their strength may be needed. Akzeriuth is Malkuth's territory, after all."

"They may remain, then."

"Uncle, what's going on? Where's Father?"

"As the Duke of Belkend, your father was forced to return to his duchy to maintain peace there. Some of the citizens attacked the laboratory thinking that the researchers were somehow responsible for the loss of the Score. It was vital to keep them alive to discover the cause and the solution to the current crisis, but luckily Grand Maestro Mohs was able to piece together the truth from recorded fragments of the Score." Writing down the Score was forbidden: that way only the order's scorists had access to copies. Asch wasn't surprised Kimlasca had been allowed to violate that when it came to such a vital prophecy. Ingobert had read the promise of prosperity to strengthen his resolve when Natalia had talked about her dreams of a life with Luke.

"So the Score has truly vanished?" Sync asked. "How can that be?" He was overacting, but no one was likely to pick up on it.

"We don't yet know the exact cause," Mohs admitted, "But there is a solution. Two thousand years ago, Yulia and Lorelei came together to create the Score that saved Auldrant and created unprecedented prosperity. Yet, recently, there has been war after war, disaster after disaster. Yulia only created seven fonstones: the time of the Score will soon end and that might be what has happened. We are at the end of the history recorded on the sixth fonstone: it is possible that that was recorded on the vanished seventh, both this disaster and the remedy to it. Luckily, thanks to the grace of Yulia and Lorelei we have such a remedy."

Opening a scroll (and a few weeks ago he would have cried heresy at the very idea!) Mohs read, "ND 2000. In Kimlasca shall be born one who inherits the power of Lorelei. He shall be a boy of royal blood, with hair of red. He shall be called the light of the sacred flame and he shall lead Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to new prosperity."

Natalia's indifference shifted to interest.

"ND 2018. The young scion of Lorelei shall bring his people to the miner's city. There he shall turn power to…" Mohs closed the scroll. "The record on that fragment ended there."

"Luke just returned home and you want to send him to Akzeriuth?" Interest turned to disbelief and affront.

"Natalia, be silent and listen," her father commanded, clearly not in the mood.

"Do you mean that Luke possesses the power of Lorelei? The same power that Yulia used to create the Score?" Van was the one who spoke up, knowing that Luke and Sync wouldn't be able to participate in the charade well enough at the moment.

"Oh come now, Commandant Grants, don't try to tell me you didn't know." Mohs wasn't buying that. "Why else would you spend so much time training and retraining a student so far from Daath?"

Van sighed heavily. "There were some indications in the fonstone on Hod, although I was too young to have access to most of the Fende secrets when Hod was destroyed. Also in Yulia's journals, although there wasn't much detail, there was an injunction to her heirs to guard the light of the sacred flame, for if he were snuffed out then Auldrant's only hope would vanish with him. His light could guide the faithful to the promised land of Eldrant."

"A new planet? No, a new planet's_ memory_. A new Score." Moh's smug relief was only bearable knowing that it would be wiped from his face as soon as they chose.

"There was nothing about another Score," Van cautioned him.

"How exactly did Yulia create the Score?" Family secrets be damned: Van would answer or Ingobert would have his head.

"When mankind discovered Lorelei's existence, a war began to control the future. The nations fought each other and Lorelei himself for the prosperity a Score could create until the world was almost destroyed. Ultimately, since Yulia was the only one among the few seventh fonists of the time who did not long for power but to help others she was chosen. He took human form, assumed a false identity, and revealed to her a way to save Auldrant. Then, he kept her from reaching the Key of Lorelei until she had proven her worthiness by composing the Grand Fonic Hymn. Only a deep bond between their hearts enabled its creation. Using the Grand Fonic Hymn, I could supposedly summon Lorelei to my aid, but I could not use it to create a pact. It would merely serve as a reminder of his love for Yulia and pledge to protect her children." Van admitted that, "The destruction of the Score did not come as a shock. I have known for several days now that Lorelei is dead."

"I sensed the loss of the Score, but hoped my premonition wasn't true." 'Ion' bowed his head in mourning.

"Yulia's pact was between her and Lorelei. Also, it was Lorelei himself who arranged for her to acquire the Key that could be used to bind him. That Key was thrown into the core. All Yulia understood was the necessity of the hymns and the Key: the true secrets of a pact's creation would have died with Lorelei."

"Do you have any idea of what happened to Lorelei?"

"I'm afraid I don't. Tear, did you sense anything? It was shortly after I returned."

Tear closed her eyes, trying to think. "There was a… strange feeling. Yes, it must have happened around then. Ever since the seventh fonon has felt… like Luke," she realized. "Perhaps Luke inherited Lorelei's power then?"

"Like me?" What did that feel like?

"Just… I don't know how to describe it. But it's like night and day." Frowning, Tear revealed that, "It might have been natural causes. We don't understand Lorelei's nature, but before the change the power was… stiff. Tired and drained, almost. Now it feels alive and growing." And happy, although there was a tendency to have sudden mood swings…

"Natalia," Ingobert addressed his daughter. "You and Luke must journey together to Akzeriuth. Without another Score the world will only descend further and further into chaos. I know you feel a responsibility to the common folk, but the only way to end their suffering is to solve the problem that caused it."

"Yes, father."

And thus, Kimlasca would control the new future. Or so they thought.

"Luke, please, fulfill your birth Score and bring unprecedented prosperity to Kimlasca. We are all counting on you, the world is counting on you. You must form a pact with Natalia and create a new Score."

Asch winced.

"No."

"…What?" How could his nephew possibly refuse such a command with such a cold voice? This wasn't merely childish petulance. This was something new, and Ingobert had already learned to be afraid of the new.

"There shall be no new Score." Luke's calm voice carried the force of a decree. He showed no signs of backing down in the face of Ingobert's anger.

Van looked at Asch. Should they interrupt, or watch the show? Asch shrugged. Van could do whatever he felt like, Asch was just going to watch and laugh.

"Luke, are you alright?" Ignoring the apoplectic Mohs, Natalia leaned forward. "Your eyes, they're…"

A golden glow began to appear above Luke's hand. "A pact has already been made. The Score itself was the greatest deviation from the right path in Auldrant's history. According to the terms of the new pact, any who seek to inflict another Score upon this world shall perish."

Asch's eyes widened. "Luke, no!" That alone wouldn't work. "Natalia, say you won't create another Score! Say it, or you won't live to keep the promise we made in Belkend!"

Natalia stared at him. "…what?" She looked at Luke, and then back at him. Her eyes widened.

"Say it!"

"I swear that I will not try to create another Score!"

"Thank goodness." Luke's relief was apparent even through the mask of Lorelei's heir. "Uncle, Grand Maestro, swear the same oath or die."

"Who are you?" Ingobert demanded of Asch, understanding beginning to dawn.

"Who created that pact?" Mohs stalked forward, trying to intimidate Luke.

"He the one who inherited my power. The only one with the right to forge a pact, and he has chosen this world's survival and freedom. I will not let you attempt to interfere with his choice. There shall never be another Score."

"This chaos? Get used to it." Asch stalked forward. "This is how things should be. You built Daath far too close to a volcano because the Score said it was safe. But active volcanoes erupt, and lava flows downhill. Daath should have been destroyed centuries ago. You relied on the Score's predictions that it would not rain on Baticul. Baticul is located in a place that should get lots of rain. It should have flooded centuries ago, unless you had been smart enough to build a decent pump system. This, not the Score is the true nature of Auldrant. A world of chaos, a world where no one knows what will happen, not next year, not tomorrow, not even in the next instant." Grasping Luke's left hand, the one the hyperresonance gathered above, Asch caressed it fearlessly as Luke's gold-tinted eyes watched the ones he was a heartbeat away from destroying. "I find it far preferable to a world in which children are raised to be sent to inevitable death by their own kin, don't you?"

"Asch," Luke pleaded, not knowing how much longer he could hold it back.

"Don't worry. If they don't change their minds I'll kill my uncle for you, and I'm sure the others will jump at the chance to get to kill Mohs."

"Van! So this was your plan all along!" Tear leapt forward, placing herself between them and Mohs. "Toue rei zue…"

"Oh?" Asch smirked. "Sae lune sae…" He pulled Luke backwards against his chest, still holding that hand.

"Asch…" Luke practically purred, then raised his other hand and cut off her connection to his power, rendering the song she was attempting to sing without understanding the meaning of it even more pointless. "Tear, stop. I don't want to hurt you. This is what was meant to be, don't you understand? This is what they hoped for, a way to save this world from destruction."

"Luke, didn't you see all those people? The Score is our only guarantee of prosperity!"

"Guarantee? Guarantee? Your family lived on Hod, Tear, and you tell me that the Score was a guarantee!" They'd never seen Guy angry before. "The Score let Hod happen! I'd rather have the freedom to mess up and get myself killed than be kept happy and content until my appointed time to die! Rappigs, Tear, that's what the Score makes us! Rappigs kept happy and content in their little pens until it's time to slaughter them for the good of the butchers! The Score, that they read part of? They were going to send Luke to die at Akzeriuth along with ten thousand innocent people! They were going to repeat Hod to win a war against Malkuth!"

Ion and Natalia were bewitched by the hymn Asch still sang, or perhaps by the sight of Asch singing it into Luke's ear as he clasped him possessively with one arm and held back the hand which held such a dangerous power with the other.

"He's right, Mystearica. Do you know what happened to our homeland? Since it was doomed, they performed horrible experiments on its people, our family. And then, when Kimlasca invaded, they decided to destroy it to hide the evidence of those experiments. Hod would never have been destroyed if it weren't for the Score. I would never have been used to destroy it against my will, the same as Luke would have been used, if it weren't for the Score and its promise of prosperity."

"No… Damn it!" Guy drew his sword, wanting to kill something.

"The Score has always ensured…" Mohs shouldn't have volunteered.

"Hey! I wanted to kill him!" Sync was pissed off.

Guy didn't care, standing over the body, breathing hard. "Then you should have done it earlier."

Ion's face, or rather the face of the Ion Luke knew, really shouldn't have that look on it. "I suppose there are more Score-loving idiots where he came from."

The hymn finished, and Asch released Luke after closing his hand and ending the hyperresonance. "I was the one he intended to die as well. I'll kill him for you."

"Asch…"

Van hesitantly addressed his lord. "Gailardia…" Was he alright? Was he angry?

"Vandesdelca, you had all those years to tell me: you'd damn well better have a good reason why you didn't. And why my Luke is a replica. And what's going on, now _that _would be nice to know. But I trust you. And avenging Hod by destroying the Score makes up for a multitude of transgressions. Good job, Sir Fende." Guy made an odd salute with his sword as soon as he had dodged back out of range of Tear's staff.

"You're from Hod!" Ingobert realized, seeing Van's answering salute.

"Count Gardios, at your service." Guy's elaborate bow was mockery in motion. "Too bad Duke Fabre isn't here."

"Grand Maestro!" Tear, after giving up on Guy, fumbled for a life bottle.

"It won't work, Tear, I don't want him to come back. He's already hurt too many people." Luke met Tear's distraught eyes sadly.

Natalia blocked Asch's path to Ingobert. "Luke, I don't know what's going on, but I can't let you hurt my father."

Asch touched the head of her arrow and pushed it down as he looked into her eyes. "If he doesn't swear not to try to create another Score, Natalia, the Luke you have known for the past seven years will be forced to defend himself and this planet. We wanted to make this a better country, Natalia. One that cared about people's lives. This is necessary."

"Father!" Natalia turned to him. "Why care so much about the Score? See what relying on it has brought us! You closeted yourself with that man who would have let hundreds of people drown, trapped behind the gates in the name of the Score and abandoned your people! Is that what it means to be the ruler of Kimlasca? Answer me, Father!"

"Yes, tell her why you engaged her to me, all the while plotting my death!" Asch demanded.

That was what forced him to see reason. "…I swear not to attempt to create a new Score."

Luke sighed with relief. Of course, there was still the matter of Tear, who, desperate for an ally, turned to Anise. "Help me!"

"Help you? No way! I've been waiting for the day I could dance on Mohs' grave for_ ages_!" Anise grinned.

Even Ion, disguised as Sync, wouldn't meet her gaze. Tear fell to her knees. "This is… The world has gone mad."

"I don't think so." Luke frowned. "But then, if I was mad, I might think I was sane because I was mad." Luke was Auldrant's memory and therefore mind, in a sense. "Lorelei… Probably should have been insane, under the circumstances, though I'm not sure if he was. The world was insane before this, though. What sort of sanity is it to… But that means the world could be mad without the sentience being mad, or would it?"

"Don't worry about it," Asch told him.

"I think worrying about that sort of thing is part of what I'm for."

"Do I have to sing again?"

"Will you? I love it when you do." Wait. Since he didn't have to pretend to be normal, he could be a kid again! Yes!


	8. Sport

_And the last chapter._

_The game kind of underestimates how much impact losing the Score would have on Auldrant._

_Also, Jade decided that he wanted to be part of an ancient cult because it would weird people out, and I know better than to argue with the infamous Necromancer when he's that close to cackling. The traditions in there are somewhat continental/British Celtic, Norse, somewhat a mish-mash of North American Indian, and a lot stolen from pre-Gilgamesh Mesopotamia. _

_Because people invent religions, especially in a world where there _really are_ gods of the elements, and they had to have _something_ before the Order. The delay in posting this was me going, this is too off-base, save it for original, but... sadly, there's a lot of plot intertwined with it, so I'd have to scrap and rewrite half or so of the damn thing and find another way to make the points about alternatives to the Score vs. chaos and so on this lends itself to, not to mention the vastly amused Jade. And his spear. Cackling. _

…_oh, god. I now have a Discworld crossover in my head. Jade and Granny Weatherwax. I don't think I can write it, the urge to _run away_ it inspires is far too great._

_And I need more showing and less telling in this fic. Asch managed to wait to show some of it, but _man_ does he want to gloat. _

_Repost A/N: Yes, this chapter needs more work._

* * *

Later Luke, small again, curled against Asch's side, nudging at Asch's arm until Asch sighed, knowing what Luke was up to, but gave in put his hand into Luke's hair and started scritching. Luke wiggled until he was comfy, then settled. Luke had only really gotten the minimum of physical contact in the manor, and he reallyreally liked all the hugs and stuff children got. Like Master Van patting him on the head and Guy giving him piggy-backs.

Guy sighed, arms folded as he leaned against the wall. "So you're happy with this?"

Luke frowned. "Well, Asch is a bit of a…"

"It's not being sadistic to enjoy seeing people get what's coming to them. You can't tell me you don't enjoy setting things right. It's the same thing, only on the human level. The followers of the Score are punished because of their own wrongness, and those who yearned for freedom prosper. Mostly. There are no guarantees in this world! But it's fair for once, Luke. Who lives and who dies isn't dependant on who has power and access to the Closed Score. It's _glorious_." Asch closed his eyes, reaching for more.

"He's getting off on it. I didn't know what those words meant until I looked for how describe that." Luke paused, thinking, as the others winced at how wrong it was for a child to use those words. "I suppose… it's not that different from the hymn makes me feel, but…"

"You don't like people being hurt, so you don't understand how Asch could enjoy seeing the wicked punished." When Luke nodded, Van smiled slightly. "You'll understand when you're older."

"What's going on everywhere else?" Sync asked eagerly.

"Oracle Knight HQ and much of the rest of Daath is flooded with slowly cooling lava, parts of Belkend are still on fire after the riots and Sheridan's arming the war machines under construction." when as a conquered vassal state they weren't allowed to have armed landships. They were supposed to have weapons put on them when they arrived in Belkend. "Engave and St. Binah are planting extra fields now that they don't know exactly what the weather and the demand will be for food and medicines will be, as for Grand Chokmah and Keterberg, care to make a guess, Colonel?"

Jade rolled his eyes. "Aside from Peony having a party and commissioning new outfits to force people to wear during it and my sister giving thanks to the other fonon sentiences, not really." Keterberg still had a 'cult' dedicated to the worship of the other fonon sentiences. They produced the weapons of Gnome, Sylph, Undine, and Efreet usually found in the casino, as well as ones on occasion dedicated to manifestations forgotten outside Keterberg, like Yutis' bow and the Celsius Caliber. While the Order of Lorelei was forced to admit the others existed, it considered them unimportant compared to Lorelei. "I suppose it's a good thing I was kept unaware of this. It would have been hard to act innocent enough to stave off a war if I'd known the cause of all this when we entered the city. As it is, starting a war is the last thing on their minds."

"It would be, if they thought they could use it as a way to rally the people and acquire more territory and resources," Van reminded him.

Asch continued his report, not so secretly gloating. "Peony's charismatic enough to keep things mostly calmed down in Grand Chokmah, but the city's still technically under martial law. There haven't been many large disturbances, but it's reassuring the populace that there are troops out there to catch looters and that reduces the urge to get in some preemptive looting. He's also made announcements about the increased production of food in Engave and sent troops down to build houses there. The way he worded the announcements made the most worried about future starvation without the Score move there and try to learn how to grow their own food."

As for Keterberg, "As the High Priestess of Celsius, the Disciple of Everlasting Ice, when the ice started melting your sister was stuck with the choice between resurrecting the traditions of sending young warriors out into the ice to battle Celsius for the right to remain in her land," which was a nice way of describing human sacrifice, "or the sacred marriage in the old form."

"She's been performing the sacred marriage for… Oh, my. Peony is going to be sorry he missed _that_." Jade clearly wasn't. This was his sister, after all, who would be doing a certain thing in public so that the people could see that her choice was indeed able to please the Ice Queen as tradition demanded.

"Since her husband's dead, the current ruler of Keter is a rather handsome young camping trip leader and escort who actually does resemble Peony."

"Your sister put a prostitute in charge of her city?" Sync stared at Jade.

"Oh, he's the King, of course, but he wouldn't bother to lower himself to deal with 'women's work' like, oh, everything that actually matters. The King's duty is to guard his people against attack and placate Celsius by providing what her High Priestess commands. In other words, shopping." And raiding, but that was the old days. Jade did some counting. If he wasn't there for the Midwinter Festival she'd kill him, but luckily the Priest of Efreet's duties were relatively light. He'd adored being able to run around wearing a mask and attempt to set fire to things as a child. Theoretically he was allowed to burn down anything he wanted, and although he'd been reasonably kept in check it had been a wonderful opportunity to test the combustibility of certain constructions.

In a place so reliant on flame for heat the risk of fire was great. People who didn't build with that in mind _deserved_ the wrath of Efreet.

Also, this was going to have to be handled well, otherwise the Sacred Marriage being performed with anyone but Peony would be seen as a sign of rebellion. It had technically been illegal since Malkuth conquered the land, not that anyone had actually paid attention to that. If Peony was informed before his advisors could object, however, he'd be on the next ship to Keterberg.

Really, asking the High Priestess of Celsius, the true ruler of the Keter Tribe no matter who outlanders thought was running the place, to leave the land of the Disciple of Ice? Peony had been willing to abandon his own throne for her, but Peony hadn't though he would ever become emperor and had no commitment to Malkuth at that age.

It wasn't that Jade himself believed that Celsius or the others actually did all that much (except not crushing the city beneath a glacier, that itself was significant), but, well, he got to run around setting fire to things. The Order of Lorelei had said at one point that the Sacred Marriage and sacrifices weren't necessary because Keterberg wouldn't be drowned in snow according to the Score. The current High Priestess had thanked them for the confirmation that the Keter tribe's continued efforts to deter her wrath would be so successful.

Oh, dear. "Where's Dist?"

"That's what your sister would like to know."

"Dist should be on the Island of Feres." Why would Jade inquire about his ex-friend?

"Dist, Saphir Gneiss," the Silver Child, "is the current Priest of Gnome. Normally no one cares since we're too far north to farm," which was why Nephry had been able to let Dist keep his title out of pity despite joining the Order (of all things!), "but in this sort of situation if he's not there for his festival she's going to have to send the Priestesses of Sylph after him. Otherwise they'll go on their own."

One of those priestesses was Jade's aunt, and before the true nature of his monstrosity was known they'd thought he'd merely inherited her temperament. It hadn't seemed 'merely' at the time. "Or me, I suppose, since Great-Aunt Beryl is bedridden and the others have responsibilities." Like blessing all those new fishing boats, meditating in the Sacred Cave, and so on. "And there's only one way to make up for a failed festival. Normally no one would contemplate it, but with matters as unstable as they are now I'd wager no one would want to take any chances."

Okay, Asch wouldn't wish _that_ even on Dist. "In other words, send one of Arietta's monsters to tell Dist to get himself over to Keterberg before the end of the next month or he's going to end up buried alive for high treason."

"Seriously?" Guy couldn't believe it.

Maybe the dirt would force Dist to shut up for once? No, really, there was too much chance that it wouldn't and he'd have a chattery ghost on his hands."The continent of Sylvana is not a kindly place for those who fail to take the proper precautions. And with the Order's tendency to conceal Scores of death except when it suited it and the often imprecise language, the Score has never been regarded as worth gambling on. Not by we natives, at least."

Jade turned to the bed. "No offense to Lorelei, of course. Although since it appears that the Order was actually correct about you being male we're going to have to replace Priestess Coral. Shame, she's a lovely girl." And five years old at the moment, since the tradition was that the next child of the right gender born after the last priest or priestess died was their heir. "In fact, now that the Score is gone…" Jade's eyes widened. "Nephry married the governor because the Score dictated she would, and to disregard it would have... Peony wanted to run away with her, but neither of them could abandon their peoples. She's the first of the Keter tribe's shaman clan to have actually held a position of power openly since the conquest. If… If the Score is gone, then…"

"She's waiting for you to come home and set fire to the Order's chapel."

The one thing he hadn't been able to touch. Even the casino, if he'd wanted, but to so disrespect the Order would draw Oracle Knights down on them. "Now wouldn't that be a nice wedding present."

"I had no idea the traditions that Daath attempted to stamp out were still so respected in Keterberg." It was a pleasant surprise, something Van would never have known if he'd destroyed this world, that there were people who did not follow the Score alone. "Dist never mentioned it."

"Of course not. It's illegal, and since we're a tourist city we're constantly flooded with pious visitors poking around the place. Quaint local customs and festivals are one thing. A religious tradition with records going back before Lorelei's existence was discovered is another. Not to mention that Malkuth has no idea copies of Keter's original laws still remain. Dist might be an idiot but he's not a traitor. Even _Peony _doesn't know." Jade had never even told Professor Nebilim, and that was saying something.

"I have a priestess?" A little girl who would grow up learning traditional medicine and singing at festivals was very different from the Order's fanatics.

"And a High Priest, if Fon Master Ion is legitimate." Which was up to Luke, of course. "If you decide you don't want her representing you then she's not your representative."

Luke had to look back sixteen hundred years to see what Keterberg did when a sentience wouldn't accept any priests. "You actually used fonic artes to set fire to every house and tree on the continent?"

"Efreet is hard to placate, and they were catching fire on their own in any case." Jade explained it to the others, "The current priest of Efreet was assassinated by… actually, one of the former holders of your position, Asch, because he managed to survive the event that should have killed him on schedule and he was threatening to live out the year. In fact, he was dying in any case, mortally wounded in the original pirate attack, but he had sworn to jump into the flames during Efreet's festival if Efreet helped him survive the attack itself to in order warn the rest of the clan and get his family out alive."

Efreet's intervention was the only reason he survived the attack but that meant he was sustained by the force of fire and so healing artes did nothing for him: a dead man who still walked. "Since he was unable to keep this bargain and we couldn't punish Daath for the insult to Efreet since the entire world would have gone to war with us, Efreet was rather put out. No fires that anyone set would stay burning, fires would spring up out of nowhere where we didn't want them… Essentially, it was reclaim Efreet's holy land from those blasphemers or create him a new holy land temporarily. You did say that Daath had been flooded by lava, yes?"

Asch nodded.

Jade nodded thoughtfully. "You know, I might start to actually have some regard for my personal deity if he keeps that up."

"Is Efreet why you have those red eyes?" Sync had noted them. "I've never heard of anyone pulling that off without them exploding."

Jade snorted. "I have fifth-fonon enhanced eyes instead of third because they're more intimidating, not because I don't have to worry about them. If I were to trust in Efreet to protect me from his fonon I would _deserve _my imminent death. Those who take fire lightly _will _get burned." Jade tapped his glasses. "These are what keep them in check. Most of the priests of this fonon are eventually killed by it, either in firefighting efforts or stupid mistakes. The Keter tribe has sworn certain oaths. As long as we keep them, we have somewhat of a safety net, unless they feel capricious or that they're being taken for granted. However, if we violate them, as not burning Daath to the ground violated the oath to Efreet, then the disasters the sentiences have averted will come upon us." All at once.

"Are you talking about pacts?" Van inquired.

"We wish. I'm talking about bribery. You have to kill a fonon sentience to…" Jade paused.

Luke opened his eyes and waved a small hand at Jade. "I came back to life, see?"

"Wait, what? You killed Luke?" Guy demanded of Asch.

"I asked him to, Guy, and if he hadn't the Score said that I would die before the end of the year."

Guy was still not happy.

"I thought that I was Lorelei's avatar and that Luke would have to kill me. We're lucky I realized that it was the other way around in time."

Luke's eyes widened. "I couldn't have killed you!"

"I know." Asch patted the kid on the head, then went back to scratching. If he didn't know better, he'd think that Dist had gotten his replica data mixed up with a puppy's or something. "Moving on, the tribes of the Zao desert are fighting for control of the Oasis and a coalition sent a raiding party into Chesedonia. They were driven off by the combined Malkuth-Kimlascan-Order forces, but since no one knows what's going to happen they're not that eager to travel and people have started hoarding food. Sheridan seized the port and is dusting off the plans for the old fontech fishing fleet it had before it was prohibited from having ships other than those it was constructing for whoever ruled it at the time. They've also ramped up their desalination capacity and are looking into what will grow well in high temperatures with sandy soil, as well as sending out hunting parties, but if they can't get that airship they're working on operational and Engave won't sell them produce the talk about how nice it would be to loot and pillage Daath and Belkend might become an actual option."

"How is Yulia City holding up?" Its fanatics could be a problem, Van knew.

"Van, I'm sorry to tell you this, but your grandfather was lynched." No, neither was sorry at all. Teodoro had knowingly helped bring about Hod. "They don't know how to work the fontech that keeps the city running. The Score told them what buttons to press and so on every day. The purpose of their enclave's existence for the past two thousand years is gone and the city is falling apart around them. There are several factions: one wants to sit tight and trust in the Score, another blames the people of the Outer Lands for what happened and wants to punish us, and they've had a high suicide rate. Neither Luke nor I knows the first thing about fontech, and neither does anyone else when it comes to Yulia City, so I have no way of knowing whether that place will fall apart tomorrow or never. I can go back and look at what the people building it knew, but no one kept track of what exactly broke so that's no help. Also, no one's sending them supplies anymore."

"And Baticul is running low on supplies and space but does have a rather impressive army just standing around waiting to go to war." While Peony's efforts to keep Malkuth fed would make it an attractive target. That, Jade knew, wasn't a good combination.

"Actually, Duke Fabre took most of his troops home with him. King Ingobert let him, since at the time keeping the Fon Machine Laboratory intact was vital. He's hanging onto control solely because of those troops since he's spent most of his life in Baticul and he's not all that trusted by the natives. I doubt he'll be returning them anytime soon." Asch smirked. "And while our uncle was closeted with Mohs Natalia stole most of his army right out from under him. If we'd come in through Baticul Port you would have seen a rather impressive new city under construction, although she's still looking into getting the water out of Baticul as that would be far more defensible and she's heard all that nonsense about Malkuth wanting to invade."

"So that's why there were all those tree stumps! I_ thought _they couldn't have been logged more than a week or so ago!" Anise was always right.

"Yes, they're building temporary dormitories. At the moment, there isn't enough space for all of the refugees, so she first made room for children and the infirm and then started letting the able-bodied move in with partitioned areas for their families provided they worked in exchange for the room and board. She's not selling space in them since if they have money they have more chance of being able to rent a room." To share with other families: Baticul was _packed_. "The problem is that while a house good enough to withstand this climate can be put together relatively quickly food takes time to grow. Since so much of Kimlasca's food comes from Malkuth we have extensive granaries that were filled in preparation for the war. King Ingobert gave Natalia permission to access some of them, but if the food in them runs out and Ingobert won't release the rest Natalia has already decided that she'd rather pull a coup de etat and imprison him in his quarters than let her father be murdered by his own populace." That was Asch's cousin and Largo's daughter for you.

"And I have a cult in Akzeriuth," Luke reported. "They think that the Score's fonstones disappearing at the same time as the miasma means that Lorelei intervened to save the city from its fate, which is kind of true, actually. They've ramped up production and are sending farming implements and so on to Engave as fast as they can."

"Hmm. I can't see Peony rejecting Sheridan's offer of alliance. They were a part of Malkuth until just recently. The sacred marriage would keep Keterberg part of Malkuth for the moment, but according to tradition the king of Keter is whoever the High Priestess of Celsius finds worthy to share her bed at the moment, and Peony gaining legitimacy by marrying Nephry would merely enforce that tradition, although it would make the next emperor of Malkuth part of the Shaman Clan," Jade mused. "The direct line, in fact. It's going to be fascinating to see how that plays out."

"You mean that if your sister decides to keep her boytoy Keterberg will secede from the Empire?" Sync was stunned by the entire concept.

"Yes, you're right, I should probably advise Peony to bring some nice gifts. In the old-old days we didn't have taxes, we had the presents the Clan Heads and other competitors tried to woo the High Priestess with." Everyone stared at Jade. "What? Daath demanded tithes to read the Score and the pact demanded obedience from the world and Lorelei. On the other hand, the priests, and the gods, of Keter took bribes. I may be an officer of the law, but I personally prefer a system where bribery is _optional_ to legalized highway robbery. If they couldn't make enough money to buy expensive gifts then they had no business thinking they had enough skill to lead the entire tribe into battle." Or, really, steal expensive gifts. Keterberg had once been notorious for piracy.

Asch thought about that. "What would the going rate be for getting all that water out of Baticul?"

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Sadly, they don't bargain. You present an offering and they decide if they like you enough or not. If the price you offer is insultingly low they're not going to be that pleased. Not to mention that we've been honoring Undine for several thousand years now and she likes us. Natalia would probably have to bring something rather special to the table for her to even _consider _listening to someone who spent her life following the Score and then attempted to find someone else when the going got tough. Undine is the goddess of the sea, and she's just as deadly if taken lightly as Celsius. Spring a leak because you didn't check the calking well enough, and not all the flattery in the world will save you. You know, for someone who worked to destroy the Score you seem to display an awful lot of that 'do what the Score tells you' or 'please the gods' and you'll be taken care of attitude that led to all this. The fonon sentiences are forces of nature. Think about that."

Luke looked alarmed. "Undine says that if humanity tries to turn her into a servant the way they did Lorelei she'll send tsunamis to wipe out all the ports and work her way inland from there." She would, she really would. The other sentiences weren't all that nice.

"What's a tsunami?" Sync liked things that sounded like mass destruction.

Jade shrugged. "I've never heard even that word before."

"A really, really big wave. There haven't been any since the sephiroth were raised," Luke explained.

"Yes, that sounds like Undine." Oh, my: if they had just been freed of the Score's control… "What kind of mood are they in, if I may ask?"

"It might have been a mistake to give weather control back to Sylph. Apparently the Planet Storm really puts a lot of stress on the system, and since she is that system she's getting rid of it. We might have to shut it down, or else we're going to be having lots of tornadoes. And we'd need to lower the sephiroth before shutting it down… Thank goodness the miasma's gone" Man, he had a lot of stuff to deal with. "They're celebrating, but it's not going to be much fun for anyone else." Luke looked down. He felt bad that he couldn't do anything about them, but he wasn't supposed to. That way lay the Score.

"A lot of things are going to happen very, very fast," Jade mused, smiling just slightly. "We are living in interesting times."

Ion sighed, his first sound since the conversation had begun.

Sync turned to look at him, also for the first time since the conversation began and their nature as replicas had been revealed. "What are you whining about?"

"I don't think there's anything I can do."

"That's not true, Ion!"

"Anise, I'm two. I don't have enough experience to plan things and I don't know how to do anything but pretend to be the Fon Master. I thought I could use that to make peace, but no one will listen to the Fon Master now, at least no one that I want to listen. I can't even use the Daathic Fonic Artes without dying. I'm useless." And useless replicas were destroyed.

"You were always useless for everything but opening the Daathic Seals," Sync corrected him. "But yeah, you're really useless now, huh."

"Why, you…" Anise advanced on him threateningly.

"Ion, don't be an idiot. You're alive, you're smarter than most of the forty year olds out there running around like chickens with their heads cut off, you learn quickly, and Luke strengthened both of you so you could roast a dozen people with one arte the way your original did if you felt like it. You're not useless."

The replica blinked at Asch, reminding him of Luke. "…Really?"

Asch rolled his eyes. "Yes, really."

"Luke, thank you." Thank you so much.

"You're my friend, Ion." I couldn't just let you die.

Sync was putting together the ability to use Daath's secret high-powered artes with impunity and the advancing Anise and liking the sum.

"Sync, stand down."

Stupid Van. Oh well, he could probably try them out when he went to go admire the ruins of Daath and make them even more ruined.

Jade ignored the byplay. Alright, he had to set up some sort of peace/noninterference agreement with Natalia, figure out the fastest way to Grand Chokmah to inform Peony of all this, get to Keterberg and inform Nephry, get back to Grand Chokmah and give Peony some lessons in the traditional approach to this so he wouldn't get run out of town automatically for being a foreigner (the applicant had to actually be accepted by the High Priestess as a candidate before becoming off-limits: killing the competition wasn't unheard of in the old days), and not die, because if Undine and Sylph had been let out to play this was_ not_ the safest time to travel. Also, if possible, inform Sheridan of Belkend's weakened state. He might be trying to make peace with Natalia, but if two Kimlascan cities attacked each other it certainly wasn't Malkuth's responsibility.

He was able to get along reasonably well with Luke and Asch, and thus was in on the ground floor, but he had better make himself scarce. He had a tendency to manipulate and that would _not _be appreciated. The last thing they needed was Asch taking offense to Jade's attempts to control those around him, including (but not limited to, although Asch wouldn't see it that way) Luke.

The Score's disappearance had destroyed the very foundation of modern Auldrant. When the dust settled it would be a whole new world.

"Interesting times indeed…"


End file.
